Quoted: Microsoft trades at a healthy 4.55 times sales. So every $1 in the acquired company is theoretically worth $4.55. Pretty profitable business, these acquisitions, no? Unfortunately for the Redmond Boys, the GOOG can turn that $1 into $10.17. To over simplify things, they can afford to pay twice as much as Microsoft and still come out ahead.

It does feel like Microsoft's main gameplan in the consumer Web space over the last couple years has been to play catchup.

Quoted: So let's assume that Google has won at search, or close enough to make no difference. Is Microsoft better off trying to reimplement cat and ls, or trying to figure out what's still missing from the Internet Operating System? While they are locked in penis envy, all the really cute girls are going out with startups :-)
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Learn from the best, partner with the best, fill in the gaps, and build for the future. Above all, remember that great companies have "big, hairy audacious goals." Energize Microsoft by pursuing a seemingly impossible goal that can change the world for the better.

The Salesforce CEO doesn't hold back in calling Microsoft "the enemy".

Quoted: You’ve seen what we have been doing is slowly integrating all of our services with theirs. Certainly the enemy of my enemy is my friend, which makes Google my best friend. I have spoken with a lot of customers who want to get off of Microsoft Word.

Google has launced Gears for *Windows Mobile*. This enables some killer scenarios.

Quoted: Stuck on a plane? No problem — you can still read your docs on your mobile with Zoho Writer Mobile offline. Want to buy that new plasma TV, but can't remember how much is in your account? Check your balance with Buxfer's mobile web application, even if there is no cell phone signal.

Don't fully understand this.

Quoted: Most people think that the search and advertising markets are both likely to be extremely profitable for the top two players if there’s a duopoly; if on the other hand it settles down as a triopoly, then the margins will get squeezed and #2 and #3 will have a hard tie doing better than break-even. Right now, in the US, Google’s #1 in both, with Yahoo! #2 and Microsoft #3.

This post includes some great slides from Microsoft that accurately and concisely depict how online advertising works today.

Quoted: As we reported December 20, the last hurdle to Google's acquisition of Doubleclick now rests with the European Union after obtaining approval for ...

Refave. It's interesting that apparently a vertical merger is not considered grounds for anti-trust whereas a horizontal merger can be.

Quoted: The two companies operate in two different stages of the ad-placement process, so the commission viewed the merger as a vertical one. Microsoft argues that the deal would still affect horizontal competition on the Internet — which, though the document does not mention this, would include Microsoft.

The Hotmail creator, Sameer Bhatia, believes he can beat Google Docs and Zoho Office.

Quoted: Here are the first screenshots of Live Documents, a Microsoft Office like productivity suite that seeks to challenge Google Docs and Zoho Office.