Blang!

The big news last week was that Microsoft has made a 40Billion+ offer to buy Yahoo! Supposedly, Microsoft thinks this will form an unstoppable Google-killer, but their wrong.

Merging two increasingly irrelevant giant corporations will not only fail to stop their decline, but accelerate it. After Microsoft swallows Yahoo! it will set about killing off anything that looks like it threatens Microsoft’s traditional dominance. Unfortunately, that’s precisely the most innovative areas of Yahoo! This clash of cultures will surely result in a mass exidious of top-talent, many of which are likely to find a home over at Google.

Personally I like Yahoo!’s chances better on its own. Its certainly come down a long way from being the search leader but somehow has managed to retrench and prevent itself from falling into complete irrelevancy. When you’re traveling at the speed of the internet and fall into a tailspin, just pulling up and leveling off is a heck of an accomplishment. It proves you must have something going for you.

Microsoft, on the other hand, was supposed to be at the top of its game. One last chance to really cash in on an OS upgrade before OSes start to become more or less irrelevant. But instead of a golden egg, the golden laid a lead balloon. Now, Microsoft is lost. It already knows Vista is a dud and there is no hope of ever selling it as good upgrade option but it plans to force the upgrade on people are also in jeopardy because of those pesky Mac adds! People won’t upgrade, they’ll switch to Macs!

Don’t get me wrong, Microsoft will still be a huge player for a long time to come, but where can Microsoft go from here?

There is only one place; down.