Microsoft – Yahoo! Why The Hell Not?

I now use Mozilla Firefox as my main browser because the software is the best on the market today. The competition from Mozilla Firefox has forced Microsoft to develop a better IE.

Domination of any market can be good for customers, if you read Geoffrey Moore's books on "crossing the chasm" and "inside the tornado". The mainstream market wants the leader in a market to succeed and rewards them. Yet, dominance in a market is not always a given, the leader can slip and lose their way. Yahoo! did this in search, even partnering with Google, until too late Google had overtaken Yahoo!'s leadership position.

Microsoft is a tough and able competitor and has lived through a lot of ups and downs in the technology sector; don’t count them out on anything.

Google is now on top, but that position is not guaranteed to remain, how many of us would have predicted 8-10 years ago that Yahoo! would have lost its leadership position in search. Healthy competition from Google helped to build a better web and industry. Yet leadership in a marketplace can bring its own problems. I think the move by Microsoft sets up a stronger competitor. However even if Microsoft and Yahoo! do merge, there's no guarantee that their share of the market will not continue to shrink. But Yahoo! And Microsoft are not just about search, and there are other competitors who might just develop new products we cannot even conceive today.

Paul Glazowski of Mashable asks of the merger: Why the hell not?

I agree with the sentiment of why the hell not, why not build a company that has a chance of being competitive in a world dominated by Google. I think the competition will be healthy for everyone.