The New York Times is only one of the many sources saying that Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for 44 billion USD, or roughly $31 a share (62% over the current offering price.) It's probable that this will go through - it's a heck of an offer, it's pocket change for MS, and Google will still have a larger market share, meaning that it won't violate current US antitrust laws. Along the way, MS gains a massive boost in its search engine, and Yahoo gets... well... economic strength and survival. (Consider that Yahoo just announced the layoff of roughly 1000 workers.) Some questions for TSS readers are: What happens to YUI if Microsoft buys Yahoo? Since Yahoo is now an OpenID provider, does this make Microsoft a major player in OpenID now, compared to their announcement to support OpenID "in the future" in Feb 2007? Lastly, what should we call the new Microsoft/Yahoo amalgam? MicroHoo? YaSoft? Moo? MaHoooooooo!?

What happens to YUI if Microsoft buys Yahoo?

Definitely there will be a fork.

What happens to YUI if Microsoft buys Yahoo?

Definitely there will be a fork.

I'm not good at Open Source law but reading in the YUI licence the following does not make me worry that it can't be forked: Where not otherwise indicated, all YUI content is authored by Yahoo! engineers and consists of Yahoo!-owned intellectual property. YUI is issued by Yahoo! under the BSD license above. In some specific instances, YUI will incorporate work done by developers outside of Yahoo! with their express permission. In these instances, copyright is retained by the author; however, in the context of the YUI library it is issued under the BSD license. If a fork can be blocked I would be surprised by MS to allow it - YUI will be a competitor to its own RIA/AJAX solutions.

What happens to YUI if Microsoft buys Yahoo?

Definitely there will be a fork.

If there will be a fork, or well anyway, you should take a look at ExtJS. It had YUI as the foundation from the beginning but can now be used standalone or with a 3rd-party library, including: YUI, jQuery and Prototype/Scriptaculous. Note, I'm not affiliated with ExtJS, just a happy user. /Tommy VisionProject Manage projects successfully the Agile Way!

Hi all ! I don't like this idea: M$ could buy Yahoo!, The Internet Company! What it is interesting with Yahoo! is that they invest a lot in the open source movement. Many parts of Yahoo! sites are made in php; Rasmus Lerdorf, one of the PHP father is a Yahoo! employee. Morever, YUI is one of the most advanced user interface project... Even though M$ has created some approved open source licenses and have built codeplex, a forge for M$ technologies, I don't think that M$ do that for the open source movement and its philosophy... In fact, we don't live in Second live or in a dream, and in fact only business has its place ;-(

What happens to YUI if Microsoft buys Yahoo?

Definitely there will be a fork.

All what I wish is that M$ won't kill this nice library.

I'm sure M$ will be happy to maintain and foster a nice open source alternative to its own proprietary options ...

Definitely there will be a fork.

That just sounds like rhetoric. Microsoft appears to make rational business decisions, so if it makes sense it would stay, no? Sam Ramji from Microsoft Open Source Labs will be speaking at EclipseCon 2008 this year. Why not come and ask? You might be surprised. - Don

Definitely there will be a fork.

That just sounds like rhetoric. Microsoft appears to make rational business decisions, so if it makes sense it would stay, no?

Sam Ramji from Microsoft Open Source Labs will be speaking at EclipseCon 2008 this year. Why not come and ask? You might be surprised.

- Don

Even if I did agree with you, MS has Atlas and MS has Silverlight so to follow your line of thought - it doesn't make sense. Anyway, does anyone know if a fork would be permissible with the YUI licence?

...since YUI is under a BSD license, which is amongst the most permissive ones. For instance, a part of the TCP/IP stack of Windows itself comes from one of the BSD OSes (since Windows 2003, if I remember well). BUT, the fork (of YUI) ought to occur soon, meaning before Microsoft changes its license... That's what occurred for the X server some years ago, for instance : X.org made a fork of XFree86 before its license changed for a different one.

I actually use Yahoo Mail personally. And I use Yahoo maps in many of my flash application. I'm actually happy with Yahoo. I hope to god that M$ does not buy them.

44 billion down the tubes. What percent of Microsoft's cash war chest is that? That was always the question, how could MS ever truly go down if it had those cash reserves. Answer: blowing it on failed acquisitions. This is a dream come true.

But they're buying Yahoo!. That's how it works these days. Which means if you give a company $44 billion dollars for the rights to buy the company, you get the company and all their assets, including the $44 billion. Of course, it's not as simple as that, and Yahoo shareholders can all cash out, but this is essentially a merger. Many people will cash out at a 60% profit, but then it will settle down quickly. Like an IPO, hardly anyone will be able to get in at that price, and it will settle down to near or below the original stock value fairly quickly, so most people holding Yahoo stock will end up with the equivalent in Microsoft stock, plus or minus what the market considers the "synergy" value of the two companies.

The New York Times is only one of the many sources saying that Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for 44 billion USD, or roughly $31 a share (62% over the current offering price.) It's probable that this will go through - it's a heck of an offer, ...

This should be excellent news for Google - if MS buys Y then soon Y market share will start approaching MSN's due to enhancements ;) It is time for me to move my mail from yahoo though.

This is bad news, I've been a yahoo! Mail user for 10 years, I don't want to move :-(

Wheres the relation to Enterprise Java? Maybe I'm missing it.

Wheres the relation to Enterprise Java? Maybe I'm missing it.

OpenID? YUI, in use by a number of web frameworks? Microsoft? Yahoo? To me, all these work together to make this fundamentally worthy of note.

Lastly, what should we call the new Microsoft/Yahoo amalgam? MicroHoo? YaSoft? Moo? MaHoooooooo!?

Definitely Mooooooo!!!!

Now MSN Search will finally be able to take on Google! (Yes, MSN still does exist. And yes, there is such a thing as MSN search. No kidding. And it lost less than a billion dollars last year.) Peace, Cameron Purdy Oracle Coherence: Data Grid for Java and .NET