[danielha]

  >> how many startups could they fund with $45 billion? 
  100? 200? 1000? why exactly do they want to be at the helm
  of a slowly dying web portal left over from the first dot com boom?

I understand the "startups are king" mentality around here, but come on. Regardless of their quarterly performance, Yahoo! is one of the biggest brand names on the web. Microsoft won't establish a bigger web presence by "funding startups."

[davidw]

Exactly. When companies get as big as MS, they need big wins. Big companies never seem to be interested in or capable of managing and dealing with lots of small deals - perhaps it would be too much of a hassle chasing a lot of small fry even though a few will eventually take off.

[joeguilmette]

my point is that they could get a lot more bang for their buck elsewhere. yahoo is a dying brand.

if they invested that $45 billion in 45 one billion dollar projects, if at least one of them had an annual net of more than $700 million/year, they are doing better than buying Yahoo.

[Xichekolas]

Microsoft buying Yahoo is like Microsoft(1) buying Microsoft(2). Both companies are huge, with dying net brands, and both are being cut to pieces by Google (and probably soon enough Facebook). I don't see the great synergy, and they definitely not paying that for a great product pipeline. My only guess is they want the search/ad system. That seems to be the only thing that makes Microsoft(2) != Yahoo.