Yahoo
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| azerthoth Feb 09, 2008 9:34 PM EDT |
Turned em down cold. Makes me want to yell Yahoo!!! |
| thenixedreport Feb 09, 2008 11:12 PM EDT |
I saw that one coming too. :) |
| dinotrac Feb 10, 2008 1:41 AM EDT |
Umm... Before you yell, you may wish to check the reason for their decision -- not enough money. |
| thenixedreport Feb 10, 2008 2:54 AM EDT |
Well dino, as they say, money isn't everything. If the people at Yahoo can't controll their own stuff either, then a big chunk of change isn't going to be worth it. ;) |
| hkwint Feb 10, 2008 5:17 AM EDT |
Quoting:you may wish to check the reason for their decision -- not enough money. The result can be one of the two following: -Microsoft ends up paying far too much for Yahoo, or -Microsoft ends up without Yahoo Neither is good for Microsoft I assume. If they pay too much, they will desperately try to cut down on costs, which probably means firing a lot of people and selling divisions. A lot of employees might become frustrated if that happens, and they might leave to. If Microsoft ends up without Yahoo, perception will be they're in a bad position to compete against Google. Probably neither won't have much influence on open source and free software anyway I guess, but I don't know Yahoo that well. |
| dinotrac Feb 10, 2008 8:37 AM EDT |
>Neither is good for Microsoft I assume. Maybe, maybe not. "Too much" is a hard question to answer anyway. The market is usually pretty efficient at determining value, but not at any given point in time. Yahoo may have a lot of value for Microsoft -- if only by giving it a better beachhead against Google. Perhaps, Yahoo gracefully lets Microsoft out of MSN, with Yahoo becoming MS-Yahoo, the new "combined" MSN and Yahoo! in which -- shockingly! -- most of the old MSN pieces seem to have disappeared. |
| jdixon Feb 10, 2008 8:46 AM EDT |
> ...in which -- shockingly! -- most of the old MSN pieces seem to have disappeared. Microsoft isn't that smart, Dino. Or, more accurately, their ego overwhelms their intelligence. |
| dinotrac Feb 10, 2008 9:26 AM EDT |
jdixon - Well, they are fully capable of shooting themselves in the foot while aiming for the other guy. But a rational company might be able to make something of it... |
| hkwint Feb 10, 2008 1:29 PM EDT |
Quoting:The market is usually pretty efficient at determining value Well, even in the short time of my 'conscious' life I've seen this go completely wrong at least two times. No, I don't believe in the market being able to determine something's value, especially not when it comes to the value of some company. That might have worked when you were young maybe, when the supply and demand system still worked like it was supposed to. Today looking at the US economy declining but stock-markets still going only upwards every week, the relation is totally gone, and speculation is what the 'value' determines. |
| dinotrac Feb 10, 2008 1:40 PM EDT |
Hans - The market is more efficient than anything else out there, but it is only as good as the quality of information, and it is volatile -- investors panic, prices fluctuate daily in ways that don't reflect real changes, but...overall, it works ok. As to the US economy declining while the stock market goes up every week, you haven't been paying attention. The US economy is in much better shape than people give it credit for, and the stock market has taken some big hits recently. |
| jdixon Feb 10, 2008 2:02 PM EDT |
> Today looking at the US economy declining but stock-markets still going only upwards every week, What Dino said. The market is down so far this year. Also, it should be pointed out that the stock market indexes are NOT a measure the US economy. They're a measure of the prices of various companies, nothing more. Add to that the fact that many of those companies earn significant portions of their income from non-US sources, and you can see that the linkage between the economy and the stock market indexes is not going to be exact. |
| Abe Feb 10, 2008 3:51 PM EDT |
Quoting:US economy declining ... The US economy is in much better shape than people give it credit for, There seems to be a big disagreement about the state of the US economy! I believe a new definition of Good economy/Bad economy is in order. Would some one present a definition of a good economy? |
| dinotrac Feb 10, 2008 3:59 PM EDT |
>There seems to be a big disagreement about the state of the US economy! Well, duh!! It is an election year, after all. >Would some one present a definition of a good economy? In the US context, that's a bit of a misnomer. Overall, the US economy is pretty strong and has been for years. Like any market economy, however, it goes through natural cycles which may not be avoidable, may even be desirable for their corrective effects. Right now, the economy is slowing down, but unemployment remains in the 5% range, Eons ago, when I was earning my Econ degree, they thought that unemployment below 6% might not be possible, and, if possible, would be caused an undesirable breakdown in employment mobility. The dollar is weak and inflation remains a threat, but...y'know, the dollar has actually solidified against the Euro, exports are looking up, and wages have started to creep back up. The whole liquidity fiasco (subprime mortgages!!! gack) and real estate remain a concern. We certainly will go into a recession because that's what our economy does, but...things could be a whole lot worse. |
| hkwint Feb 11, 2008 3:02 AM EDT |
Quoting:but...overall, it ("the market") works ok. Phew, I'm glad you and others believe that. What would the world be if people like you - the ones the market depends upon - didn't? Problem is, Mr. Bernanke's decisions aren't driven by the market, and that's why in the end it will fail. After all, it were Mr. Greenspan non-market driven decisions causing the current mess, and it will be Mr. Bernanke's decisions causing mess again in the future. I mean, the market doesn't work with interventions like the congress proposed intended to control the market (the Fed. borrowing money to give it to Americans who can't pay their debts?), and the same goes for interventions like those Mr. Bernanke just did (If we do want the economy to keep growing, make sure people keep borrowing, no matter if they can afford it or not!) The currency market is the best example of how the market fails to work: It's dominated by speculators which such astronomical large amounts of money that even big players like the Bank of China or FED can't change the rates if they wish to. |
| dinotrac Feb 11, 2008 4:50 AM EDT |
Hans ... Huh? The market is what it is and has been for thousands of years. As Bernanke messing things up "again" as you say, even that relies on the market, although it is a non-market intervention. The currency market is a good example of how the market works, not how it fails to work. Euros are high relative to the dollar because people would rather have euros than dollars. American debts are too high, and European interest rates are high relative to American interest rates, thus attracting more investors to euro-denominated securities. Must be putting extra flouride in that Dutch water today, Hans. |
| hkwint Feb 11, 2008 5:57 AM EDT |
Hehe, as said, I'm glad you believe it works. Indeed, the valuta market is the best way to see how the market fails, not how it works. Bernanke doesn't rely on the market, his decisions are political. I guess we have to talk again about ten to twenty years from now because at that time there will be no denying the market has failed in my opinion. As for Yahoo, the original topic of the thread before I hijacked it: Seems they want to be bought by AOL. That will be interesting probably. |
| dinotrac Feb 11, 2008 6:15 AM EDT |
>Seems they want to be bought by AOL Methinks there could be some stockholders with a word or two on the issue. Right now Yahoo management is in a bind -- they need to convince stockholders that waving goodbye to Microsoft does not mean permanently waving goodbye to a sizable chunk of change. |
| jdixon Feb 11, 2008 8:57 AM EDT |
> I believe a new definition of Good economy/Bad economy is in order. Would some one present a definition of a good economy? A good economy is one in which I have a job. A bad economy is one in which I don't. There's an equivalent definition of recession vs. depression: A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. |
| hkwint Feb 11, 2008 11:44 AM EDT |
Quoting:A good economy is one in which I have a job. A better economy is one in which I don't need a job to have more money than my neighbour. |
| Abe Feb 11, 2008 12:02 PM EDT |
Quoting:A good economy is one in which I have a job.I like this definition, but would be more accurate if we expand the scope a little. Let's not be selfish. :) A good economy is one which almost everyone can find a decent job. With that in mind, can we say that the current US economy is good? |
| dinotrac Feb 11, 2008 12:14 PM EDT |
>With that in mind, can we say that the current US economy is good? Given that NO economy anywhere in the world has ever or will ever meet that definitition depending on your defintion decent, the US economy comes pretty close. |
| jdixon Feb 11, 2008 1:05 PM EDT |
> ...can we say that the current US economy is good? The Department of Labor says the January unemployment rate was 4.9%, which is considered excellent by historical standards. Of course, you know how reliable government figures are... More to the point might be the Employment-Population Ratio, which is 62.9%, also very good by historical standards. You can see a chart of the historical rate at: http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2007/09/employment-po... |
| hkwint Feb 11, 2008 1:13 PM EDT |
Quoting:With that in mind, can we say that the current US economy is good? Because those 'IT-consultants' (no harm meant to the good ones), employees of 'think tanks' (you know, the ones not having to think for their job), and people working at 'interoperability labs' at Microsoft wouldn't qualify for the word decent, I'm afraid not. Uri Geller on the other hand, does have a decent job (bending spoons by means of sheer imagination). But then, he's not from the US, so he doesn't count. |
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