09.22.08
Microsoft Executives Penetrate Corel, Yahoo; Is Novell Next?
The problems with inside intervention were mentioned before, along with some examples. Microsoft may be shedding off a lot of senior staff, but these people end up somewhere else where even greater damage to an already-unhealthy market can be caused.
According to the Financial Times, the Icahn-Microsoft-Yahoo saga is not over yet, which is hardly surprising.
Yahoo’s reconstituted board is expected to meet for the first time tomorrow, with activist member Carl Icahn committed to renewing the pressure for a deal with Microsoft.
Mr Icahn, the billionaire investor, and two allies were elected after Yahoo’s annual meeting on August 1 in a deal that ended a proxy fight he had led to unseat the board.
Kara is seeing what we wrote about before, namely the hiring of Microsoft executives who join Yahoo!
Jeff Dossett, a longtime Microsoft exec whose most current job has been as executive producer and general manager of MSN, is leaving the company, sources said, and is likely to land at Yahoo soon.
A longtime and experienced mountain climber, Dossett (pictured here) has been one of the more senior digital execs at Microsoft.
The reason given for Dossett’s departure from Microsoft (MSFT), announced internally this afternoon, was to “pursue other opportunities.”
While the hire is not yet complete, that apparently means that he is likely going to rival and onetime Microsoft quarry Yahoo as a senior exec.
Given that Carl Icahn is already on the board along with at least two ‘partners in crime’, in addition to Microsoft staff joining Yahoo, it seems likely that Microsoft is still hawking Yahoo, circling the company as its value drops. At the same time, it works hard to single-handedly intercept the company’s deal with Google. The New York Times (bias to be noted [1, 2]) reports.
One company has done more than any other to publicly disparage the Yahoo-Google deal: Microsoft, the same company that did not succeed in acquiring Yahoo earlier this year. Hell hath no fury like a suitor scorned.
We previously showed how viciously Microsoft was attacking this deal [1, 2], reaching as far as hiring of AstroTurfers. It’s ugly stuff, no matter one’s opinion on “guerrilla marketing” and “proxy fights”.
In other news, Corel is adding a former Microsoft executive to its top ranks.
Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:CREL) (TSX:CRE), a leading developer of graphics, productivity and digital media software, today announced that Kazuo Sakai will join Corel as Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan Operations and President, Corel Japan effective immediately.
Corel may not survive, having surrendered to Microsoft’s agenda, just like Novell. It probably won’t be long before Microsoft executives take positions of power inside Novell. No-one would be even shocked at this stage because the two companies show their affection in public. █
Provo
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.