
All the news of the potential Microsoft/Yahoo! tie-up is going to be around for a while. With Microsoft’s officical bid for Yahoo! being worth just under AU$50 billion, this deal is far from done. It’s only a matter of time until numerous regulators form an orderly line to question the size of the deal.
So what does this mean for us?
Firstly, it could throw the cat in with the pigeons in terms of all of the (Microsoft) hotmail.com and yahoo! email addresses we all have out there. How are the spammers gonig ot send me more information about a random Nigerian prince wanting to transfer large sums of cash to my bank account if I give them my details, my passport, and the keys to my house?
Secondly, it could have a distinct impact on television in Australia, with Microsoft and Nine linked with nineMSN, and Yahoo! and Seven linked in via Yahoo!7. Would this lead to a wierd merger between Seven and Nine, where they would comine their individual stables of mediocre programming into one doubly mediocre collection of shows. I mean, honestly, have you seen the ads for that Monster House show??
While i’d usually be all for mergers that brought competition (and therefore innovation) to a market with such a dominant player (Google), Google isn’t doing a while lot wrong for me to vote against them right now.