Internal CEO over External. All the academic studies agree that an internal CEO is a less risky proposition than an external one. However, an external CEO is needed when the organization needs a dramatic shift. You both were more than justified to make that shift 5 years ago when you brought in Terry. The environment is different today. A respected internal leader would be embraced and rallied around by the Yahoo!s. You have the perfect candidate within your midst.
An Open Letter to Jerry Yang and David Filo. 11/17/2006 blog

Apparently Yahoo! followed many of the recommendations carefully detailed in that blog. From a business perspective, the advice apparently made sense; notwithstanding, the biggest flaw in the recommended path is now evident: an external captain for Yahoo! was needed --not an internal "well respected" but inexperienced one. And now Microsoft wants to own Yahoo!

Having realized late (due to an antiquated pre-Internet business model) that the Network is the computer --that is, the level (enabled by the Internet) at which computing processes occur-- MS recent hostile intention to take over Yahoo! should not be taken with indifference.

The Internet is open to innovation, collaboration, and competition, because the protocols to exchange information are open like TCP/IP, simple like HTTP, and freely available to any entity technically proficient to implement those.

Those notions of openness are alien to Microsoft because its control of the markets that it dominates is due to the encroaching principles inherent in its proprietary (hence hidden source) operating systems, communication protocols, and certain file systems, among a long list. It is therefore not surprising that those of us in the free and open source software side have to struggle to integrate our open technology offerings with Microsoft's closed source proprietary technology.

This modus operandi, typical of monopolistic entities, has been practiced by MS to limit competitors's access --notably free and open source entities like us, to a fair opportunity to compete by offering alternative excellent and robust open standards technology solutions. From the open source side, for example, until recently and only due to an European Union mandate, we were unable to know the communication protocol used by certain types of Microsoft technology --hence we experienced integration issues with MS applications that communicated by means of the SMB protocol.

Accordingly, allowing Microsoft to acquire Yahoo! would seriously undermine the openness with which free and open source software entities like us, as well as Microsoft's proprietary competitors, have access to services and collaborate in the Internet cloud platform.

Collaboration and social networking engagements through the medium of the Internet have up to now been open to heterogeneous devices, like personal computers and handheld alternatives; and mail and messenger protocols have been open; non-Microsoft operating systems, like Linux/freeBSD/Unix and OS/2, as well as non-Microsoft browser software applications like Mozilla and Firefox, empower users to access the Internet for collaboration and social networking with freedom.

But if more power over any aspect of the Internet is granted to Microsoft, that entity will likely attempt to usurp Yahoo!'s quasi and open source software infrastructure (Zimbra, for instance) in favour of its proprietary, closed-source protocols and software. Microsoft has done that in the past, during the initial business and customer technological phase of evolution --prior to the full realization of the "Internet is the computer paradigm."

Those of us in the free and open source side want to have an equal access to communicate, collaborate, and engage in business in that vast and rich Internet landscape. Allowing Microsoft more influence in the network of networks --the Internet-- by the acquisition of Yahoo! will potentially defeat the implicit principle of open access to the Internet to future generations.

Therefore, us at Metztli Information Technology, believe that allowing Microsoft to take over Yahoo! is counterproductive to the Internet as a whole. Unfettered and quality access to the Internet and its content in the future might potentially be restricted to only those individuals or entities that use Microsoft software and/or services, and/or pay royalties. Evidently, we do not think Microsoft's acquisition attempt is only about the added revenue of online advertising market share. We think it is about the invasion and monopolization of the Internet computing platform.