theregoesdave

vs.

I laughed pretty heartily when analysts reported that they doubted Steve Ballmer’s resolve in pursuing a hostile takeover of Yahoo. For me, Steve conjures up images of Chainsaw Jack Welch, except in the Software Industry. This varies greatly from warm and fuzzy Internet Executives like Sergey and Larry, Tom, or Jerry himself.

However, Jerry Yang is pushing very hard to derail Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo. It seems that he’s made it a personal vendetta and is rumored to have taken the posture of considering anyone. but. Microsoft, but we still haven’t seen any valid reason why. Could it be Microsoft’s poor track record on Search and MSN? Actually, those just seem to make it more likely that MS won’t be as likely to cull Yahoo’s talent any further. If he’s willing to consider offers from Barry Diller and IAC, why not Microsoft?

Instead of spending time negotiating the best possible offer from Microsoft, Jerry is running around the country trying to find an alternative suitor. This kind of behavior is fairly disappointing from a full grown man let alone a corporate executive. His strongly negative outcry against the deal could polarize many Yahoos against the company that could still very well be running the show from here on it.

Jerry, you’ve done a fantastic job growing Yahoo into an Internet Behemoth. If you’re ready to cash out, why not do so with a little panache and a partner with deep enough pockets to invest in developing new technologies?

• Yahoo Search Begging for Users
• What’s wrong with Microsoft and Yahoo’s incestuous agreement
• Call for Mobile Web Standards
• Windows Mobile 6.1: “Full Desktop Browsing?”
• Microsoft creating an Office Web interface for iPhone