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Why Microsoft Is Desperate for Yahoo
There are a ton of great jobs in the world, but running Microsoft? No thanks. I‘d rather run Iraq.
Microsoft is under assault in every direction, and losing the battle on any number of fronts. That’s why it‘s so desperate to come to terms — any terms — with Yahoo. The software giant went back to Yahoo yesterday to suggest a joint venture that would give Microsoft a position in Yahoo’s search business. We‘re supposed to believe that Yahoo — thanks to Carl Icahn‘s proxy battle to replace Yahoo’s board — is feeling the heat. But it‘s Microsoft that has everything to lose here. The barbarians are at the gates, and Gates (as in Bill) has gone off to serve humanity. Without a search strategy that works — and with Yahoo potentially linking up with Google, a partnership that is expected to be announced in a few days — Microsoft is an empire in rapid decline.
Let’s start with its core competence, operating systems. Vista is a disaster and Windows 7, its successor, is two years away. By then, the market for desktop/laptop operating systems will be smaller, perhaps dramatically so. The sweet spot is steadily moving away from “computers” to mobile devices — phones, mainly — and Microsoft‘s mobile operating system has never captured anyone’s imagination, let alone the market. (In its first quarter of existence last year, Apple’s iPhone overtook Windows Mobile.
With iPhone 2.0 and a variety of Google-Android-powered cell phones set to roll out, it‘s not going to get any easier.
I could go on and on, ticking off the things that Microsoft needs to fix. But Kevin Johnson, president of the company’s platforms and services division, does a far better job than I could. He oversees the 14,000 people who work in the Windows and online divisions of the company. He took over the job three years ago, which means that Vista is his baby. In a memo to employees Sunday that touched on the latest Yahoo overture, he admitted that Microsoft‘s search biz has stalled: “The fact is that we are not where we want to be in this business yet and we’ve been in this position longer than we‘d all like.”
Johnson lays out four things the company needs to do, which you could pretty much boil down to this: Figure out a way to combat Google. He alludes to a “major new initiative” the company will be announcing at an annual advertising conference in Redmond later this week. The initiative, he promised, will “innovate and disrupt in search.” Good luck with that, but at this point even a Yahoo acquisition might be too late.
微软，你究竟看中雅虎哪一点？
世上有很多有趣的工作，想去接手微软么？ 不，谢了，我宁愿去掌管伊拉克。
目前微软四面树敌，前沿阵地不断沦丧。这也正是它急于再次向雅虎出招，以达成任何形式合作协议的原因。昨天这个软件巨头向雅虎提出了新的合资方案，将使微软取得雅虎在搜索业务方面的市场份额。由于卡尔·伊坎（Carl Icahn）企图颠覆雅虎董事会的代理权争夺战，我们感受到雅虎内部的激烈斗争。但是微软从中将会一无所获。已经兵临城下了， 比尔·盖茨却已投身慈善事业。没有一个真正实用的搜索策略 —— 伴随着雅虎同 Goolge 的私下协作和即将声明的伙伴关系 —— 微软成为一个迅速陨落的帝国。
让我们从微软的杀手锏“操作系统”说起。刚发布的 Vista 操作系统简直就是一场灾难，它的更替版本 Windows 7 将在两年后发布。那时，台式机及笔记本电脑操作系统的市场将会急剧缩水 。市场重心将从电脑逐步地转移到移动设备 —— 特别是手机上来。微软的 Windows Mobile 操作系统从没有合乎人们的意愿，更别提市场了。仅是发布第一个季度，苹果iPhone的销量就已经赶上了配置微软 Windows Mobile 操作系统的手机。
伴随着苹果 iPhone 2.0 升级版和内置 Google Android 操作系统手机的推出，微软要想在手机市场分得一杯羹就更是痴人说梦。
除去微软必须弥补的过错，我还可以一直再讲下去。但是凯文·约翰逊(Kevin Johnson),微软平台及服务决策部门的总裁，可以做的比我更好。他负责监管公司视窗和在线部门的14,000名员工。三年前他接管这项工作，这意味着 Vista 如同他的“亲生骨肉”。在周日发给雇员的有关雅虎最新提议的备忘录中，他坦言微软的搜索业务已经陷入窘境：“事实上在商业方面我们还没有取得应有的成功，并且，停滞在这个状态的时间远远超出预期。”
约翰逊提出微软必须要做的四件事，你可以将这四件事归结为一点，就是全力以赴打击 Google。他提到了本星期晚些时候即将在雷德蒙（Redmond）的年度广告会议上宣布一个“重大新举措”，他许诺会“主动革新并刷新搜索行业格局” 。很幸运他现在终于开始这么做了，但现在即使并购雅虎成功恐怕也为时已晚。
