There have been extensive grumblings up and down West Coast USA as of late, concerning Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo and the suspected culture clash that would result from a merger of the two corporations. Yahoo employees in particular fear the loss of an entrepreneurial atmosphere in Sunnyvale. Tech pundit and blogger Robert Scoble, speaking on a recent episode of the TWiT pocast, has the sense that a combination of the two forces would be messy and would be a job for their respective management teams to sort out for at least a year following the final handshake by their CEOs, Jerry Yang and Steve Ballmer.
I too can attest to forecasting a long, and sometimes painful transition period for Microsoft and Yahoo if the deal were to be completed. The people at Yahoo operate in a different fashion than those at Microsoft, for sure. There most definitely will be noticeable discontent and mutinous activity happening in both California and Washington states if things do proceed.
Yet, I also have to give Microsoft at least some benefit of the doubt here. Because believe it or not, Microsoft, despite its proclivity for playing a grumpy, graying (and let’s not forget domineering) technology giant, has a history of knowing when to take a mostly-hands-off, non-overbearing role in relation to its businesses, whether they be purely in-house developments or acquisitions. A number of the company’s research efforts, for example, are given a substantial amount of slack by the execs in Redmond. Yes, it’s true, Gates and Ballmer have had a history of granting a rather commendable level of autonomy to various parts of the corporate structure.
Therefore, I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t be too much of a leap to think Microsoft would play a reserved role as the new parent of a well-established $44-billion-plus Web giant. (more…)
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