MS offering to buy Yahoo ???

[rusty]

Hi dwmtractor

Just read your post. Sorry if I bent or broke any rules. I'll be more consious of what I'm proposing in terms of Zimbra forum etiquette.

As for your personal comment, check out the petition, we went from under 40 to 102 signatures in the last day. Click on view signatures and scroll through all the names and read their comments.

When I do that, I feel inspired. People do care.

Are you sure you want to call the game in the first inning?

To see petition, click here Support against Microsoft takeover attempt on Zimbra (part of Yahoo), an Exchange Server alternative Petition

I thought about making this a PM to Rusty, but I think we need to be open here. Rusty, you have every right to make your points on this forum like anyone else, and you'll notice that neither Zimbra employees nor we moderators have interfered. However, when you use the Zimbra forums to advocate sending ANYTHING to everyone you know, you are violating both netiquette and forum rules. I'm going to moderate that post, NOT to censor your opinions, but to preserve the integrity of the Zimbra forum.

Just to be perfectly clear here: Everyone has the right to post their opinions on this forum. However, advocating unethical or inappropriate email behavior is not acceptable on the forum of a reputable mail program.

Now removing my moderator's hat and speaking my personal opinion: As of this afternoon you have 13 replies to your "online petition" thread and a total of 35 posts on your whole forum since you started it two months ago. Far from lack of knowledge (thousands have read this thread alone on the Zimbra forum), I believe this evidences lack of interest on the part of those who know, to sign online petitions.

In a business like this, it's money that talks, not the opinion of a bunch of open-source users like you and me. If Warren Buffett wants to buy Zimbra and make it open source, he can offer enough $$$ to do so. But an online petition, even if it has thousands of signatures, won't accomplish the job. Basically, what costs nothing is worth just about that much when it comes to influencing a business decision.

Now I'll climb down off my soapbox. . .

[kirme3]

Just as a funny aside, I checked out the petition and when I viewed signatures, the ad given to me was for Exchange hosting. I just got a little chuckle at the humor of the situation.

[gmsmith]

Investor: MS 'blundered' in threats towards Yahoo
Microsoft "blundered" this weekend when it threatened to underbid in a hostile takeover of Yahoo, according to one of the latter company's major shareholders. Bill Miller, the portfolio manager for Legg Mason, states that his company is ready to back Yahoo's desire to stay independent, which is aided by its 7 percent control. This makes Legg Mason the second most powerful shareholder for Yahoo, behind only Capital Research & Management.

[meltingrobot]

Analyst: Yahoo's major investors prefer Microsoft bid to no deal - San Jose Mercury News

[kirme3]

In reference to the Mercury News article, that seems more like a misleading headline than truth. While Gene Munster reported that a majority of the investors they polled preferred it, they do not state who the investors are, what percentage were for it, and would not answer follow-up questions. Additionally, the article actually contradicted itself by the end stating that Yahoo! is saying most investors prefer an independent Yahoo!

The whole article seemed more like FUD than actual news. But that's just my opinion.

[fselendic]

Imho, MS will end up paying what Yahoo asked, 50 bil $, MS doesn't have too much options, Google is too much of a threat for them.

That leaves us with no Zimbra.

Best thing that could happen is that someone else acquires Zimbra before MS does. Sun or Red Hat.

In this form, with current license, I don't think community edition has any chance.

[stock99]

maybe redhat and sun not feel like to buy zimbra is because they are waiting for the development of samba4 + openchange?
I don't know anything about coding.. just a wild guess

[kirme3]

For those who are keeping track of all the news...here's something new from WSJ:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120776803032602423.html

[fselendic]

maybe redhat and sun not feel like to buy zimbra is because they are waiting for the development of samba4 + openchange?
I don't know anything about coding.. just a wild guess

Well, Sun does have it's own product, calendar server, however, I'm not sure how much revenue that generates. Besides, Zimbra would be a great fit for Sun, with its recent opensource (GPL) push, and MySQL acquisition. And, as far as I know, Sun has server side implementation of MS protocols, meaning no Outlook plugin would be needed

I was under impression that Zimbra generates a nice cash flow, it is definitely easier to sell than Sun's calendar server, it seems like a great deal to me.

[meltingrobot]

Just read about the AOL/Time Warner thing on Engadget. Looks like their may be A New Hope after all...