VentureBeat - Latest Comments in Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

Guest — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:29:21 -0000

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Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

kawika — Mon, 05 May 2008 02:17:27 -0000

Microsoft wanted Yahoo for the page views to "scale" its search/ad strategy. Nothing comes close to scaling, so even if they buy the rest of the top 10, they're no where near where they wanted to be. How else can they scale? If they really believe in their technology, how about spending billions to sponsor free content?

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

A Blogger — Sun, 04 May 2008 20:59:33 -0000

Microsoft can buy any and almost all of the Top 10 for the price Yahoo wanted!

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

A Blogger — Sun, 04 May 2008 19:01:56 -0000

@tzik,

Sounds right. MS is in deep trouble and for teh first time could lose everything if it does not make some moves. Unlike last time against Netscape, there is not Bill Gates to move the company so Ballmer has to do something.

As you said tiny Web 2 buzz bubbles starups with unkown ad revenue like DIGG, Twitter, Ning, will not move the needle. The top 10 sites not counting Google, MSN, Yahoo, Wikipedia, eBay & Amazon, Apple by comScore MediaMetrix Top Web Properties are:

1. AOL 100M Uniques ($10B)
2. Fox/MySpace 88M Uniques ($10B)
3. Ask/IAC 55M (10B)
4. About/NYT 47M (Unknown $5-8B)
5. Viacom 44M (Unknown)
6. Weather Channel 40M ($5B)
7. Facebook 36M ($10-15B)
8. CNet 35M ($2-4B)
9. Glam Media 35M ($1-2B)
10. CBS Online 39M ($5B)

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

tzik — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:12:06 -0000

Digg? Twitter? You must be joking. MS is looking for major PV generators, not some tiny web 2 buzz bubbles. We're talking top 10 sites here.

And there ain't to many of those up for grabs. Yahoo said no, Facebook is a monetization disaster, so is Myspace even if News Corp agrees to sell, Wikipedia can't be bought, Blogger is spoken for, so is Youtube.

Microsoft is in deep trouble, Internet wise, and the only solution in site is starting to be creative, more open than open, risk taking and fun. - everything MS knows how to be better than anyone!

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

Fabian Schonholz — Sun, 04 May 2008 12:01:30 -0000

It will be interesting to see who they go after and how they execute their acquisition strategy.

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

A Blogger — Sun, 04 May 2008 11:08:49 -0000

@MG,

If you read Steve Ballmer's email- this is about Internet Advertising in Search, Display & Video. With aQuantive purchase MS starts to get in the Agency game. With Yahoo, it would have got in the Search, Display & Video game, and seriously increased its position in Search Ads.

If MS does not go through MS will look at other Advertising companies, Ad Networks and Ad Platforms. Most of Google Search Ads run on publisher sites- not on Google.com, so MS is missing a publisher Ads solution.

I would add other Ad Companies, like AOL bought Ad.com, Comcast bought Adify.com, and Yahoo bought Blue Lithium, Google bought DoubleClick. Vertical Networks like Glam.com, and other Ad Platforms like OpenX.

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

wallow — Sun, 04 May 2008 06:02:53 -0000

snyggast, you know osx actually REDUCED in market share this year right?

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

snyggast — Sun, 04 May 2008 04:51:13 -0000

osx is taking over the planet. so they need to fix their operating system. Windows 7 should be a linux distro with Vista interface. OSX is the best linux distro there is. First, however, they need to fire all the lazy unproductive employees. If Google got some, I'm sure MS has thousands.

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

Workpost — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:01:43 -0000

Microsoft should pour some extra money on the team(s) responsible for ASP.NET, C# and Visual Studio. They have to be among (if not) the most talented and innovative people working for the company.

They won't waste the funds.

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

Sean — Sat, 03 May 2008 23:39:45 -0000

They are going to wait for Yahoo!'s stock price to drop and Jerry Yang to get fired. With a non-religious CEO in place, they will come back and close a deal at a significantly lower price.

No number of startups will give Microsoft what it really wants: legitimacy online. They want the Yahoo! brand just as much as they want the Yahoo! properties.

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

JojoMas — Sat, 03 May 2008 23:01:50 -0000

*lock-in*

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

JojoMas — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:59:57 -0000

Buy a larger share of Facebook? Maybe, but why spend money on a project that isn't, and probably never will, generate meaningful profits.
Twitter? No. Even if they wanted a similar service, they could easily replicate it. But I'm under the impression Microsoft wants to do real business now, and step aside from failed web 2.0 iniciatives.
Friendfeed? No...
Digg? No...
AOL? Maybe. But they don't add much value.
I guess Meebo and Ning are good starting points. I could see Microsoft buying working, and proven, web applications as to garner a user base, and probably trying to lock-out niche networks to deliver advertising to, Xbox-Live style.
I guess we'll see.

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

MG Siegler — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:20:06 -0000

@the old coot - Good point. These next 6 months are going to be the most critical ever for Yahoo. It's not much of a direct comparison, but remember when Friendster walked away from Google's $30 million offer in 2003...

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

MG Siegler — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:17:09 -0000

@Wing - I 100% agree with you, but I just don't see that happening...

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

The Old Coot — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:16:57 -0000

It always had 50 billion to burn, probably more like 100 billion, but why buy a company that in 6 months time is'nt going to worth a quarter of what it was before MS pulled away from the deal.

MS will probably pick it up for a song unless it can reinvent it's self and in this day and age it better do it in the next month.

Re: Microsoft now has $50 billion burning a hole in its pocket…

Wing Yu — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:07:13 -0000

To compete against Google, Microsoft shouldn't be buying companies. They should simply work on creating a better product and marketing it. Case in point, how many people out there know what URL to enter into a browser for Microsoft Search? Then again, I don't even know if it's called Microsoft Search, Live Search or MSN Search...