There has been a lot of bytes chewed up today over the unsolicited bid by Microsoft for Yahoo but there are a few things you may not know about the bid and the history surrounding search and Microsoft's attempt to get into this market:
* Bill Gates wrote "At the Speed of Thought" in 1994 and completely missed the Internet. The book was irrelevant almost from it's release. All of their thoughts revolved around a walled garden product called MSN that was to compete with AOL's dial up product. Search was never in their radar. Their idea was that content was king, much closer to Yahoo than Google. In fact their preoccupation with AOL allowed them to completely miss the search/advertising market. Also Microsoft was offered an investment in Google but they declined.
* Yahoo started as a directory, not a portal. The "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web" was a listing of websites in a hierarchical category. This was also missed by Microsoft's preoccupation with walled gardens aka AOL.
* This was not the first offer for Yahoo, the first overtures were in Feb 2007.
* Microsoft has admitted internally that it's MSN strategy including the new Live service will not succeed against Google. In fact Balmer was told directly by Terry Semel, former CEO of Yahoo, that they should forget search. Google has won end of story.
* Microsoft has never attempted an integration this size and never attempted an integration where the platform has no Microsoft technology in it and where there is a major overlap in product functionality.
* Yahoo Board Member Maggie Wilderotter is a former SVP with Microsoft.
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