MicroHoo: Done Deal?

Microsoft has turned up the heat bigtime on the Yahoo deal. It looks to me like a direct "Take it to the shareholders" ploy, and if this succeeds (as it likely will) then this is going to be a "done deal".

There are some internal Microsoft shakeups which have been reported in recent hours that make this deal ever more likely.

Microsoft  announced the departure of several executives Thursday, among them a Silicon Valley veteran recruited to help fix its unprofitable Web business and one in charge of marketing Windows Vista, and the promotion of more than a dozen others across the company.

Microsoft Senior Vice President Pieter Knook will head a new Internet Services division that Vodafone Group Plc announced Tuesday. In this new role, Knook will direct the development and delivery of Vodafone's consumer Internet business.

Yahoo is reportedly talking with News Corp. about a possible deal that could save it from Microsoft's $44.6 billion takeover bid. But like the rumored merger talks with AOL, some analysts see Yahoo's maneuvers as a ploy to simply pry more money from Microsoft. And it looks like Microsoft is prepared to ante-up to meet the challenge, if necessary.

Microsoft has been working this deal with varying results for over a year, currently amid bigtime sqwawks from Google. But unless a suitor (NewsCorp, for example) materializes, this is going to be a "done deal" soon.

Microsoft apparently is willing to do "whatever it takes" to take on arch rival Google. This is getting interesting!'

What are the synergies? Yahoo is a major presence in content and eyeballs on the web. For developers, it will take considerable time to sort everything out. But Yahoo has some very interesting developer API's and I bet that Microsoft will try to capitalize on them. All this benefits you and me as developers, once the dust settles - which could take a year or more.