> umm.. Uncle Bill is the one doing the buying.. so.. umm.. i read that > as the courts viewing microsoft as becoming the monopoly.
> google made a run for the desktop a while back, right? so google is > trying to compete with microsoft on a certain level. you can't exactly > call these things monopoly since microsoft is a PC-OS while google > is a webserver.. still microsoft has MSN search. microsoft has > historically tried to horn in past the OS, (e.g. exel and word) > so now they want to try to take websearch. it ain't gonna happen, > umm.. i don't THINK it's gonna happen, right? I've been through many M&A deals. MS will be able to successfully argue that the MS+Yahoo! combo does not constitute a monopoly, since: 1) the share of search of the combined companies does not equal that of it's competitor, Google (source: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3627122) 2) The combination of MS and Yahoo! does not preclude any search/portal/email competitor from entering the market. All of this assumes a few things: 1) Yahoo's shareholders believe the deal represents a good value 2) Google doesn't start a bidding war for Yahoo that MS can't sustain The Yahoo! BoD has a responsibility to solicit competetive offers, so who knows? But, assuming that MS is the suitor of choice, we will see MS and Yahoo! minimizing their market penetration, until they are on the other side of the close. I cannot see the US DoJ blocking this transaction. Jerry http://www.syslog.org _______________________________________________ freebsd-chat@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-chat To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"