We were so excited about Microsoft's audacious bid to buy Yahoo that we managed to squeeze ourselves into the studio here at the Guardian Gulag and record an additional podcast - our first Tech Extra (click here for the MP3).
I'm joined by Charles Arthur and Jemima Kiss as we ponder the whys and wherefores - and leave you wondering what $44bn really looks like.
There's also lots more coverage of the bid: Microsoft takes on Google with $44.6bn takeover bid for Yahoo; Markets surge after news of bid; Why Microsoft made its move; The problems of merging Yahoo and Microsoft.
(What do you think? Shall we call them 'Microhoo'?)
Charles adds: Mini-Microsoft, the anonymous blogger who has consistently argued that Microsoft should be trying to get smaller, not bigger, says his first reaction was "That's a lot to pay for Flickr".
And then:
Man, if I was in the Online Services Division I would be worried. Especially if Yahoo! did something my team did and did it well.
And then:
"If the buy goes through, it will be one huge turning point for Microsoft: I think we'll either turn it around brilliantly and our mega-investment will be worth it, or we'll be torn asunder and revert back to our core cash cows. It will be a story worth telling, one way or the other. In the meantime, that big huge money-chest is going to go empty, and that might bring a new sense of clarity to our operations."
Indeed, the moneychest will be empty: Microsoft had $19bn in cash in hand at its last quarterly results, and it says half of this bid will be cash, half shares. Which means it's going to have to borrow a few billion from the money markets.
You know - those money markets which are suffering a credit crunch, with nobody sure quite who owes what, and insurers suffering huge losses. Yes, those markets. Even with Yahoo's $2bn of cash that it'll get, that's going to mean straitened times for everyone involved. Three years from now, assuming this goes through, the headcount of Microhoo will be substantially less than the individual count of the two now, I'd wager.
Jack adds: Microsoft won't have a problem finding the cash, because it won't be paying out any time soon. If the deal goes through -- and it's a big if -- it will get some government scrutiny, and it's not going to be completed inside six months. By that time, Microsoft will have added roughly $12 billion in operating income, which should be around $9 billion in net profits. It could even take three quarters, like Google's DoubleClick purchase, or longer. In that case, the effect on Microsoft's current moneychest could be rather small.
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