Microsoft in no rush to merge Yahoo technology
Microsoft would not rush to merge its technology platform with Yahoo's after a takeover of the internet company, even if meant delaying some of the potential benefits to shareholders from any deal, says Microsoft's chief software architect."Technology companies, if they dive in and just smash things together for smashing them together's sake, it's reckless, it's just simply reckless," said Ray Ozzie, who took on the company's top software technology role from Bill Gates in 2006.
His comments, made in an interview last week, highlight the technological difficulties Microsoft would face if it succeeded with its unsolicited takeover, worth $41.4bn.
"They have a number of different types of technologies. They have their own corporate culture," Mr Ozzie said.
But he said he was "very optimistic" that Microsoft could pull off the main goals of the deal, provided it concentrated on not disrupting the experience of internet users and advertisers, rather than on racing to get all the financial and other benefits from a consolidation of the two companies' operations.
The technological logistics involved in big mergers, particularly those carried out in the tech sector, have been fraught with problems in the past.
For Microsoft, which hopes to use Yahoo to create a broad advertising and services platform as a foundation for its online activities, the complexities would be greater.
Mr Ozzie said Microsoft's push to create more internet services to complement its traditional software business - which he began promoting internally soon after joining the company three years ago - would finally bear fruit this year with a number of trial versions of new services.