Mad in Seattle: Microsoft's Proxy Fight Is All Wrong

I know this marks me as oh-so-last century, but one American military officer fighting in Vietnam was quoted as saying, "We had to destroy the village to save it." In other words, to prevent the village from falling into the hands of the Commies, it had to be torched.

We're seeing some of that same logic in Microsoft's announcement that it will proceed with a proxy fight to secure control of Yahoo. Even if Microsoft is successful in what the New York Times calls a "hard-nosed takeover campaign," what does it think will be left at Yahoo? Widows and orphans? Burning huts?

What Microsoft is completely overlooking is the central fact that people work at a company, in this case Yahoo, partly because they believe in what they're doing. They have a sense of mission. They have a culture. As I've previously commented, there is a huge gap between Microsoft's Borg-like culture and the more independent, open technology standards personality of Yahoo.

If Yahoo had accepted Microsoft's takeover offer and went willingly into the giant's embrace, it would have been possible for Yahoo to retain its key technical talent. A merger might have worked. But as Microsoft gears up for a hostile takeover, the talent will walk. This has tragedy written all over it.

Do you agree?