It’s all over the news, and open source supporters are on a speculative mood. What are the implications of the imminent Microsoft – Yahoo! tie up? Undoubtedly, Microsoft will use this alliance against Google, a strong supporter of open source in order to protect its products from the threat of open source software.
However, just like Google, Yahoo is actively involved in open source efforts as evidenced by Yahoo Inteface library, Hadoop, Zimbra , etc. Will an eventual MS-Yahoo tie up support or kill Yahoo’s support for open source ? These are the possibilities:
The tie up would give Microsoft ownership of open source e-mail, projects and code, giving it control over Yahoo’s project, Zimbra and other open source projects that Yahoo sponsors. Microsoft could either “proprietize” the projects , chop it up and use its features to improve MS products, or kill them altogether. This will undoubtedly tick the open source developers who built Zimbra and the customers who bought into the open source e-mail just because it was an open source alternative to Outlook and other proprietary software. This partnership will definitely challenge Yahoo’s business ethics.
The tie up could also give Microsoft a convenient excuse to finally embrace open source web-based applications, the open document format, and eventually adopt ODF.
Personally, the latter is less likely to happen. Microsoft is a company best known for its monopolistic business practices. Since the 1980s, it had been criticized for its business tactics, and is often associated with the motto “embrace, extend and extinguish”. Critics claim that Microsoft initially embraces a competing standard or product, then builds on top of that product to produce their own version of the software or standard that is incompatible with other competing products, and then gains enough market share to extinguish competition that does not support its version.
What’s in it for Yahoo? Aside from $45 B dollars, there are other mutual benefits to the partnership.
Yahoo is in financial trouble due to dwindling market shares. The same is true for Microsoft. Their common, biggest threat: Google. AC Nielsen reports that at the end of November 2007, Google accounts for 57.7% of web searches , Yahoo! at 17.9% and MSN at 12.0%, and Google is just bound to take more of that market share in the coming months.
Google is not only eating up both Yahoo and MS’s web search shares. Together with Sun Microsystems, its free web-based apps compete directly with Microsoft Office and Windows, Microsoft’s cash cow. As more and more desktop applications get online, MS’s proprietary software will soon be in serious trouble.
Then there’s the Asian market. Where Microsoft struggles due to software piracy, Yahoo! dominates. Yahoo! Japan, Alibaba, and Gmarket are some of Yahoo’s best investments.
There’s another popular motto attributed to Microsoft: “If you can’t beat them , buy them”.
