I know that I am writing incessantly on the deal the last few days. I think it is due to this deal affecting so many trends and being so disruptive to advertising, media, old tech, new tech and video. This blog is mainly about trends and two of the biggest trend making companies – HOOKED UP.
Robert Scoble – ex Microsoft evangelist has a great post on the merger and what it could mean. My favorite parts:
I do note that Google’s stock is up. Yahoo and Microsoft’s are down.
Another angle? Google is getting over its initial engineering-driven arrogance. You know the kind. Where when you show engineers/geeks/developers something like YouTube they answer “we can build that in a few weeks.”
I heard that over and over again at Microsoft and my friends at Google say it a lot too. It’s called “not invented here” syndrome. The fact that someone told the Google Video folks to sit down and be quiet during this deal is pretty significant. That’s a sizeable change from previous times when Google was looking to acquire companies.
It also means that the price for new companies has just gone up dramatically and that the venture capital barn door is gonna totally unlock as investors chase down “flip to big company” deals. I’m not saying there will be another YouTube, but investors get ancy when they see other people making big bucks.
Update: My brother, Alex, just IM’ed me: “another missed opportunity for microsoft.” Exactly. What are those bean counters doing with all that money? I guess they want the entire advertising world to go to Google, huh?
One thing that NOBODY seems to be discussing is who REALLY benefits from this merger. Is it Google, GOOG shareholders, or every single content creator that now has an army of companies rushing to offer them the best deal.
adobe and creatibe types and people who speed up the net – period
I think there is going to be a lot less kids working at Starbucks next year.