The Times Are Indeed Changin' (continued)
In the interview with Sam Gustin last week, I said:
I think we have to be mindful of the overall macro environment that we’re in… It will be less attractive to sell our companies, so we may choose not to do that, and we may choose to continue to finance them and grow them and develop them some more. It may mean that we finance our companies differently. We may finance them for longer periods of time, and take a more conservative approach to how we do the financing rounds. So I think…
…. The times are indeed changing. MSFT-YAHOO deal could mean a slowdown in M&A, but if past experience serves me well, this will be a temporary slowdown. My gut tells me that future innovation will always spur opportunity and M&A activity. The “cloud”, mobile, the introduction of WI-MAX and “omnipresence” will be the next killer combination and driving force in activity for tech. MFST and YAHOO are just on the frontier watching Amazon and Google get a great head-start here. With that being said, I need more time for this to sink in — I am unsure how MSFT acquiring YAHOO will benefit either of them, or the industry, in the long term. It could be a great play for MSFT to bring in a hot set of well used/known brands within their portfolio. At the end of the day, tho, I am concerned that they could be great partners in being really mediocre and ultimately negligent in innovation. If MSFT wants to take this battle (ala Google) to the streets, they should do what they have always done and focus on the operating system. Part of this is to go after the underpinnings — the infrustructure that will power your future OS — VERIZON and COMCAST immediately come to mind, but there are others.
I agree with fred-wilson here … “It’s time to think long term” when it comes to investments in consumer focused web technology.
Peronsally, a MSFT-YAHOO deal seems very short-term to me… not to mention expensive.