Around the Net

Microsoft's "Brilliant Steps" To Remake Itself

  • Fortune, Monday, February 25, 2008 11 AM
Microsoft is "taking brilliant steps to remake itself." Fortune says the decisions both to buy Yahoo and to open its software up to greater interoperability represent a "critical moment in [Microsoft's] history." The bigger step, of course, is the $40 billion-plus Yahoo bid, which would be the company's largest-ever acquisition and could pose significant regulatory and restructuring complications. Shareholders are very much against the deal, and have shaved 15 percent off Microsoft's stock price since the company announced its intentions.

These are huge changes for a company that built its fortune on proprietary software. Microsoft is more or less conceding that its monopoly days are over, and that the future belongs to open, Web-based programs, much of which will be ad-supported. The move to more open software is especially positive for Microsoft's enterprise business, which faces mounting pressure from corporate software makers who use open source technology. The addition of Yahoo will ease the company's transition to a more "Web-centric" (i.e. ad-supported) approach to Internet services.

Of course, Microsoft's own shareholders, who have driven the stock down more than 15 percent since the Yahoo bid, disagree.

Read the whole story at Fortune »

Next story loading loading..