MSFT... Baited, Hooked, and Hung Out to Dry!

Telsa's efforts netted a large gain for society as a whole, yet his lack of business acumen prevented him from placing himself in a more enabled position. If he had approached his feats employing more financial vigor, his impact would have been exponentially greater. My respect for Tesla overshadows that of Edison for the simple fact that I appreciate the creative element of innovation, though I believe Edison's predominant mention in traiditional history is justified, given his ability to harness the potential of his findings. After all, General Electric afforded Jack Welch with the opportunity of becoming the CEO of a company that was once considered the largest company in the world.

While I originally feared that I may be led down a path similar to Telsa, attention to this detail led me down the road not taken and to a place of enlightment. The simple key to success? There is a degree of ingenuity involved with the substance of an idea, but once this is conceived it is an intellectual puzzle which will carry the momentum... a game of relation to implement a use/reward cycle for the idea.

The magnitude of our success can be attributed to the underestimation that we became accustom to in early business dealings. I would have gladly accepted an offer to purchase PageRank for $1 million, and even pursued a buyer early on, but it was their belief in my arrogancy that allowed me to grow Google to what it is today. I can only hope this persona will persist as I smirk watching as Balmer and Icahn swim after bait like mindless fish.

While MSFT shareholders complain about their cash-on-hand, it has been key in allowing Microsoft to remain agile and adaptive in an industry with a very liquid landscape. During disruptive periods where many fundemental changes are underway, Microsoft simply acquires the leading competitors to anyone they consider a threat. Now what happens if Microsoft would need to compromise future acquisitions as an expense to purchasing the leading competitor to their largest threat?

This was the topic of discussion among the umbrelled table at Sun Fest. Yang was showing signs of distress, being pulled by leadership to go with the offer put forth by Microsoft, but I assured him to continue with the plan. Capital World Investors and Icahn will only continue to inflate the end price for the Yahoo acquisition, most likely above the price that Yang and I worked early on, or what we consider the teriminal inflection point... the point where Microsoft would be unable to acquire the reasonable competitor to the semantic search technology Google is *waiting* to release. The result for us is the same...