It appears as if the Microsoft/Yahoo deal is off again. From my perspective, that’s too bad. No, I’m not a Yahoo shareholder looking to cash in. I’m just a guy who has had business dealings with both and feels that the combination of the two would have taken the best of each of their worlds and made a stronger partner for the rest of us.
One of them is really good at technology (not that the other isn’t) and has a track record of innovation. The other is the best partner from a client service perspective with which I’ve ever worked. Instead of this being about ego (most business deals have a good dose of that in there) and control, I wish that they’d thought about where they’re NOT the best of breed and realized that one’s square peg fits nicely into the other’s round hole.
Someone told me many years ago to hire for my weaknesses. It’s not easy to admit you have any, but we all do, as do most organizations. Hopefully, that’s why they hire folks like me – to bring in a set of skills that are missing or unavailable.
The blogsphere has written many gigabytes about the other aspects of the propsed merger, both from a financial and a tech perspective. To me, the real strength of the new MicroHoo organization would have been a cutting-edge tech company with world-class client service. That is what is needed to compete.
Consult Keith 