Trooper

I figured since leejo creates a sandbox thread every 4 minutes I could post something. Microsoft has been in talks with ebay about buying it. They want to incorporate it into the MSN passport site. Microsoft would rather go in a different direction then compete with google. Buying ebay would also give microsoft Skype. Some people are already crying foul, possibly could be a monopoly. Recently microsoft has thought about acquireing yahoo but reliezed that Yahoo has nothing to offer that would give them an advantage over Google.

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story....d=13200EQKNDV0

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05...ulls_ebay_buy/

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/6910.html


My question is would this help the market? Would microsoft benifiet from this purchase? I just find it funny that a "free" company like google could cause such a mess for the mega company of microsoft. Another note, microsoft has created an ad program like google does.

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that sounds like a good idea trooper.
-Vulcan

Mateo

That's a good play.

I could definitely see how that would work. Your passport login would give you access to PayPal (which Ebay owns), which would allow you to buy MS software, music from whatever co-branded iTunes wannabe they cobble up, and Ebay.

Tie it all into Vista, and you have a good strategy going forward.

matt_g_geier

If Microsoft could buy the world they would.

Acutally, perhaps in some sense, they have already.

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[TG-Irr]Vulcher

Steeler

The illusion of choice.

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Mateo

There is always a choice.

Microsoft just plays to the least common denominator. If your OS allows you to legally play games, spend money, and connect with others on a proprietary platform, then Microsoft has what it wants.

If that's not what you want, then you have to ask: how much pain are you willing to go through? Microsoft is all about creating lock-in: they want to lock you into a revenue stream that leads consistently in their direction.

These last few days on Ubuntu have shown me; there is little, if any competitve advantage that XP or Vista will have compared with free or competing propritary operating systems. It's a matter of time.

It just rests on the desire of the consumers to make that choice and deal with the consequences.

Personally, my wife and I barely miss XP, and once I get teamspeak running (it does require some advanced linux-fu), the break would be complete.

Now, if Microsoft makes Vista a requirement for Paypal or something, well, then I'd be screwed, but rest assured, Google, or someone else, will step in to fill the gap. Microsoft hoarding internet services won't go un-challenged by their competitors.

It is, however, a great business move, and I wonder why they have been waiting so long on something like this. They have had a massive cash warchest for over a year, and have done very, very little with it.