Microsoft-Yahoo: The Blogs Weigh In

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Curtains for Yang?

Noting some blistering remarks by Yahoo's biggest shareholder, Gordon Crawford of Capital Research Global Investors, Kara Swisher offered Yang a cautionary history lesson "for blowing the Microsoft deal." On her BoomTown blog, Swisher wrote: "Uh-oh, because BoomTown has seen this story before. It was back in 2002 and the exec under Crawford's withering gaze then was former AOL Time Warner (TWX) Chairman Steve Case. Jerry Yang might want to take notes, as the situations are a little too familiar to ignore." Crawford can be "active and relentless…when he gets irked by execs who disappoint him," Swisher pointed out; Case was forced out by early 2003.

Indeed, Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch raised the possibility that Yang may already be losing his grip on the Yahoo lasso. Noting that it was Bostock rather than Yang who gave Yahoo's initial response when Microsoft broke off talks, Schonfeld said there were unconfirmed reports the board met on May 6 "and authorized Chairman Roy Bostock, not CEO Jerry Yang, to call Ballmer about restarting negotiations.… If this is true, it makes you wonder who is really in charge at Yahoo."

Schonfeld looked beyond the blame game to ponder other possibilities: "The Times of London is reporting that Microsoft and AOL are in 'preliminary talks' about an acquisition. Of course, Microsoft is still talking to everybody at this point, except maybe Yahoo. Whether it truly intends to set its sights on AOL is unclear because it needs to talk to AOL at the very least as a strategic ploy to try to thwart any possible deal between Yahoo and AOL."

Finding the Humor

This being the snark-o-sphere, of course, some bloggers just used the breakup spectacle to poke some fun. Wil Shipley, founder of the independent Macintosh software developer Delicious Monster, posted this observation on his public Twitter feed: "NEWS FLASH: Dinosaur decides not to buy albatross."

At Gizmodo, Wilson Rothman put it this way: "Bottom line: Jerry finally figured out everyone hates him for screwing up a good thing, and now he's sitting there calling Microsoft's number over and over, bottle of Beam by his side, hoping beyond hope that Microsoft, and not Microsoft's angry mom, picks up. Actually, Jerry, from what we've read, we're not sure anyone's gonna pick up."

Astride this blog entry was a photo of Yang with a cartoon-dialogue bubble reading: "Baby, Wait! Baabe? Wait! Baaaaabe!?!"

Meyerson is Deputy Technology Editor for BusinessWeek.com.