many financial institutions (JP Morgan, RBC Capital Markets, Banc of America) are predicting that the deal as it structured now is extremely likely to go through, pending only some customary haggling over the valuation. there seem to be no likely scenarios reported for either (a) other bidders (b) other better strategic alternatives, nor did anyone proffer a strong case for why the deal shouldn’t go through.
the yahoo that proudly stood as the center of gravity of internet content is going to be sucked into the borg. it has always felt like it was destined towards this very eventuality – painfully slow, painfully long. but ultimately, the fight was honorable and hard, and the passions no less intense for anyone that bled purple – users, customers, partners, and employees.
as one of those that bleed purple, i do hold out for one last gasp of a scenario. let microsoft have the search & display marketing either by outright spin-off or by a swap for a stake in facebook. and let content & audience businesses stay independent under an yahoo independent entity. yahoo can innovate the hell out of audience centric web, guaranteed. yahoo never was able to get a foot hold in the products that microsoft covets. it does content and audience very well, which interestingly never came up in ballmer’s and his boys’ gleeful eulogy of yahoo.
it would be painfully pitiful to see yahoo like the bootstrap bill turner: living in the proud past, strapped to someone else’s ship, bonded for a wretched life under the bowels of a deck run by the evil tentacled davy jones.
