Yahoo backs out

Well at least one of the portals was smart enough to leave a dead horse where it lay. Yahoo apparently has decided to drop AOL from its wish list. A brilliant move since it isn't worth nearly what Google and msn are willing to pay. I think the rivalry between the two contenders now is more of a we will will show you thing than a sound investment strategy. There is no clear reason why either should care about AOL. There are other music services out there. Msn already has one although it is somewhat of a joke in contrast to others on the net. Google is not in this arena yet and maybe msn thinks that they can deter Google by snapping up everything Google looks like it might want to acquire. From the standpoint of Google it makes sense in that there will be fewer players in the market thus increasing chances that people will buy what they would be offering. Notice how I stated looks. It may be an attempt by Google to get msn to squander its reserve cash on things that Google truly doesn't care about but nonetheless puts msn at a financial disadvantage in R&D if they waste money on acquisitions. Whatever the outcome msn will most likely lose this battle. If it spends the money it can slow Googles assault yet it depletes itself of R&D cash reserves thereby giving Google the advantage whereas if they allow Google to compete that also is a revenue threat. All Google has to do is entertain the idea of acquisitions now to make software vendors shudder. I think that Google will soon come out with a Java based accounting software that is web based thereby eclipsing Intuit and if it is Java based, making the first real attempt to capture a as of yet underserved Linux market. It could be the first accountacy program for Linux and also steal away Windows based clients. It would actually be nice thing to see considering Intuit refuses to address Linux users and in its hubris maintains an overpriced software policy.