Microsoft wants to combine internet services with Yahoo
MICROSOFT will either combine or close duplicate internet services after purchasing Yahoo!, its chief executive officer, Steve Ballmer, has said.
“We shouldn’t have two of everything,” he told a Microsoft conference in Las Vegas on Thursday. “It won’t make sense.”
Microsoft and Yahoo! own competing search engines, advertising programs, and email and instant-messaging services. Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, announced the $US44.6 billion ($48 million) offer last month for Yahoo!, owner of the No. 2 search engine.
Yahoo! rejected the deal, saying it undervalued the company. It has extended the deadline for nominating board candidates in an effort to avoid a proxy fight.
Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo! because the internet ad market will be “super big” and Microsoft hasn’t built that business fast enough on its own, Mr Ballmer says. “Advertising on the internet is a big thing and will be the next super big thing. We probably could have gotten going a lot sooner. We remain committed.”
Asked about the status of the bid by moderator Guy Kawasaki, a venture capitalist, Mr Ballmer responded: “We made an offer and it’s out there, baby.”
He said Microsoft would support Sony’s Blu-ray high-definition video format in “ways that make sense”.
Toshiba, the leading promoter of the rival technology HD DVD, conceded defeat to Sony last month. Microsoft was part of a group that backed the HD DVD standard.
Microsoft is in talks with Sony about developing a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 video-game machine, the Financial Times reported.
Mr Ballmer also poked fun at Mr Kawasaki’s Apple MacBook Air ultra-thin notebook, saying it was heavier than his Toshiba laptop and lacked features such as a DVD drive.
“Let’s have a bake-off with my Tosh and that thing backstage,” he said.
Mr Kawasaki also asked Mr Ballmer not to repeat a conference performance from several years ago, when he jumped up and down while shouting “developers, developers, developers, developers”.
Still, an audience member requested a repeat performance on Thursday. Mr Ballmer cheered for web developers, the main attendees at the show.
“If your buddy behind you just gave you a buck, I want 50 cents,” Mr Ballmer told the attendee who had requested the cheer.
I really hope Yahoo will stay independent, there is enough room for Google,Yahoo and MSN to compete and have marketshare. It is good for web innovation to have more than two search engines.
I 100% agree with admin, we need the competition between the three of them.