I think that the proposed merger between Microsoft and Yahoo! is a terrible idea, and I was quite happy when I learned that Yahoo! had successfully fought Microsoft off. In my opinion, Yahoo!'s fundamentals are still quite strong - they still receive a tremendous amount of page views, have some really amazing properties (I am continually in awe of Flickr, for example), and most importantly, they have some fantastic employees, who have a strong vision for the future.

So, it saddens me to see how the vultures are circling, leverage Yahoo's perceived weaknesses in the marketplace in order to try and destroy it. Carl Ichan, in particular, doesn't appear to have much of a clue of how the Internet works, and how Yahoo is really doing. I think that a strong and independent Yahoo! would be a great thing for the Internet ecosystem, and I really wish that the bloggers and press were presenting that side of things a little bit more often.

Back in the late 90's, things weren't looking so hot for Apple, either. But Steve Jobs came back, and one of the more controversial things that he did (at the time), was to convince Bill Gates to have Microsoft make a \$150 million dollar investment into Apple, to help stabilize the company's finances. At that time, Microsoft also announced that it would continue to produced office for the Mac for another 5 years.

Well now, Apple is doing great. They have over 19 billion of cash in the bank. So, it would be no problem for Apple to come in and float Yahoo! \$150 million, to help to protect them in this time of crisis. And it's not like Apple would be doing this just out of altruism - a partnership with Yahoo! could help Apple out. Apple's online services really haven't been that stellar - .Mac, in particular, has long been decried by mac fans. So, by partnering up with Yahoo!, Apple could tap into their Internet expertise, and really beef up .Mac, as well as to provide some new and innovative Internet-based services on Mac OS X, and on the iPhone.

So, I've established that this sort of deal could happen. And I think that it should happen. But will it happen? So far, it looks like Steve Jobs and Apple have only been interested in doing smaller acquisitions, and limited partnerships. In the Internet war between Yahoo! and Google and Microsoft - they have basically stayed neutral. The iPhone, for example, has Google maps, but push e-mail from Yahoo. So, unless Apple chooses to be bold, my guess is that this isn't going to happen. Which doesn't bold well for Yahoo!

-Andy.