First of course was the all out attempt to come in, guns a-blazing and take over the floundering company and take advantage of some serious name and brand exposures.

That didn’t work out so well as Yahoo! CEO, Jerry Yang, wasn’t too keen on the idea even though it appeared that most board members were liking the idea. Yahoo! ended up balking on Microsoft’s offer and Microsoft walked out the door.

I never expected them to stay away, I actually expected the Yahoo! stock price to take a dive and Microsoft to eventually make a new offer on the new stock price and get what they originally wanted at a discount. That hasn’t happened either …yet!

Now the plans are for Microsoft and Yahoo to enter some kind of partnership agreement, expectations around capitalizing on Yahoo’s search and advertising presence.

I’ve always felt that Microsoft had plenty to gain with Yahoo’s search and brand recognition, but I thought perhaps more important were some other properties like flickr and the portal presence that Yahoo gets with all their ISP partnerships like AT&T and SBC Global brands.

What do you think? Is this partnership a no brainer and will it just go sailing by without much obstacles or hurdles?

Post from: EveryJoe

Microsoft and Yahoo A Business Affair – No Commitment