Given that I work in Microsoft's online services group and have friends at Yahoo!, I obviously won't be writing down my thoughts on Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. However I have been somewhat amused by the kind of ranting I've seen in the comments at Mini-Microsoft. Although the majority of the comments on Mini-Microsoft are critical of the bid, it is clear that the majority of the posters aren't very knowledgeable about Microsoft, it's competitors or the online business in general.

There were comments from people who are so out of it they think Paul Allen is a majority share holder of Microsoft. Or even better that Internet advertising will never impact newspaper, magazine or television advertising. I was also amused by the person that asked if anyone could name 2 or 3 successful acquisitions or technology purchases by Microsoft. I wonder if anyone would say the  Bungie or Visio acquisitions didn't work out for the company. Or that the products that started off as NCSA Mosaic or Sybase SQL have been unsuccessful as Microsoft products.

My question for the armchair quarterbacks that have criticized this move in places like Mini-Microsoft is "If you ran the world's most successful software company, what would you do instead?"

PS: The ostrich strategy of "ignoring the Internet" and milking the Office + Windows cash cows doesn't count as an acceptable answer. Try harder than that.

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