The Yahoo layoffs yesterday have me wondering: Is this really a good thing for Microsoft’s proposed acquisition? I don’t think so–especially if Google becomes the talent beneficiary.
This isn’t exactly going the way of Borland–where the talent slowly migrated to Microsoft. There’s no doubt Microsoft has picked up some amazing people over the years, but there’s quite a bit of Bay Area magic too and acquiring Yahoo was one way of bringing these people on board. However, if the acquisition gets more contentious, it may not turn out as beneficial to Microsoft as they once planned.
I wonder, for instance, what Jerry Yang might bring to Live. With Ray Ozzie navigating the enterprise direction and Jerry Yang overseeing the “consumer” side, this could be very interesting.
But the talent has to reach down to all levels and with a vigorous battle over an extended period of time, Yang is probably out and key talent will simply forgo the drama and go elsewhere–aka Google or some startup. Microsoft should hope people choose the latter–because that way they are essentially still in the market–a much less expensive one at that.
Aren’t negotiations fun?