Dumb Idea v2.0

Maybe it is just me, but there are many things I do not understand. Things like:
- The Mother In Law pop ins
- SV theory
- The  number 1.618 repeating in all things
- People that enjoy Sushi
But Microsoft wanting to pay over 40 billion dollars for Yahoo has now went to the top of that list.  Now to me, I love math. I enjoy messing around with numbers for useless trivia reasons. So to understand how much money this is, break it down in smaller one billion chunks. Consider this:

· A tightly-packed stack of new $1,000 bills totaling $1 billion would be 63 miles high. Commercial Jets fly at 30,000 - 40,000 feet (between 5-7 miles)

· One billion minutes is about 1,900 years. Your coins would have a picture Caesar, since the Roman Empire was in full swing.

· One billion hours is about 114,000 years. About a billion hours ago, we were living in the Stone Age.

Now multiply that by 40 and some change and that is the offer Microsoft made to Yahoo and they refused?!?!?! I am not an econ kinda guy nor am I a business person, but I am a techno-geek that uses technology every single day. I never ever use Yahoo. Now back in the day, I used Yahoo Mail, IM and search engine, but better tools have been developed so me and my peers have moved away from Yahoo.

I worked at HP when they purchased Compaq and the disruption was massive. Is Microsoft's need to fight Google big enough that they want to take over a company with a hostile take over? You think Vista was bad, start practicing your Linux and Open Office Skills. I believe folks should be what the do best AND do it better then anyone. Microsoft has purchased over 100 companies since they opened their doors and (for the most part) they have all made sense. OK WebTV was questionable... But over 40 billion for a stale old turd of a search engine? Come on man! What happen to innovation? Google could be improved on many parts. What about purchasing some solid Web 2.0 players? That is where data/people are moving to now. Welcome to the 21st century Microsoft.

I would have like to have heard the pitch to buy Yahoo in the boardroom. It must have been like the same pitch for the sitcom "caveman" "OK...these computer type people are using this thing called a search engine for find stuff. We can pay 40+ billion for Yahoo and then make $2.15 per ad word!" Oh well,at this point I put my snooty "I use a Mac" hat on... Funny thing though, when this was announced, A non-data cousin of mine wondered why Microsoft would pay that much money for a watered down chocolate drink... I started laughing...but thought...hmmmm.....truer words

Jimmy Ray