Understanding the Microsoft-Yahoo! Alliance

OK, first of all, please don't say "Microhoo!" Honestly, do we have to do that? Maybe I am just grouchy or I have a complex over not having provided you with anything interesting lately. But really. Not trying to pick on Kara Swisher, as I am sure she has heard it a thousand times. But I'm over it. So don't you go putting it in comments, you.

Anyway, Kara does a nice interview with the integration leaders, Greg Nelson of Microsoft and Mark Morrissey of Yahoo! OK, that's it, I am co-opting that exclamation point: Microsoft! and Yahoo! Yeah, I did that. It's a partnership and we deserve equal punctuation love. It's either that, or I re-introduce the blibbet.

So one of the hazards of working at a company like Microsoft, is that the many businesses make changes, and keeping up with them in detail requires a lot of time (you should see the list of acquisitions, for example). Unfortunately, extra work time has been in short supply for me lately. Here's how it works: you hear about something going on at a high level, you digest the elevator pitch, someone asks you a question and you get to practice the elevator pitch knowing that our intrawebz are full of information we can use to educate ourselves even more. Or you Bing! it (aww yeah, exclamation point), and hope to find someone reliable enough that can break it down (Hammer time!). Obviously, if it's your business, you make sure you know it. But I sit "in the <mysterious> center" so I get to see it all, elevator pitch style and grab pieces of information as I go along, depending on my interest and my work needs.

I also feel like I need to let you know something too, because my blogging has been bordering on "bleh" lately. I know it... I am at the tail end of selling my house in the burbs and buying a city condo. And while that doesn't really impact my ability to get actual work done, I have less mental energy to come up with blog posts (which are still a little confusing as to whether they fall in the work or personal category. Let's call them wersonal...or not) on the drive home or in the shower; my two prime places of monkey mind blog inspiration or "blogspiration...OK, I'll stop. I have some random topics written down and felt like I needed to tell you that I am not the Fonz on waterskis; I don't swim and I would never wear a leather jacket to the beach. At least for the next few weeks, I will keep the work-related stuff coming and then get back to my normal over-sharing after I can clear some head space.

In the meantime, if you have interest in how Yahoo! and Microsoft! are coming together and the thinking behind the alliance, take a gander at the interview Kara put together.

Comments

• Anonymous
  July 02, 2010
  I've been in the middle of a few mergers and partnerships, but never anything big like that - I can only imagine what it's like over at Yacrosoft.

• Anonymous
  July 02, 2010
  I prefer to think of your blog posts as "pork" rather than "wersonal." ;-)

• Anonymous
  July 03, 2010
  Haha...you boys are funny.