Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

A few months ago I weighed in on Microsoft's bid to acquire a stagnating Yahoo. Earlier this week Microsoft, in a 'dear john' letter from Steve Ballmer to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, called Yahoo's bluff, pulling its offer off the table.

Mr. Yang could soon be sweating bullets.

April saw a flurry of tense negotiations, but in the end, the two tech giants could not reach an agreement. Microsoft offered as high as $33 per share; Yahoo would not drop below $37 per share.

As trading closed Monday of this week, Yahoo shareholders saw their Microsoft-induced bubble cut in half. Just prior to the January announcement of Microsoft's intentions, Yahoo shares were creaking along at around $20. After months of trading in the high -20s, shares plunged Monday afternoon to around $24.

So why was the sell-off not more pronounced? At $24, shareholders are still looking at a significant premium over pre-bid levels. I'm neither trader nor economist, but this doesn't seem right to me. Is there something I'm missing?

Rumors are abounding that Microsoft's withdrawing was a purely tactical maneuver; that there is more news to come. On a smaller scale I could see this as a possibility. But a deal of this magnitude? Doubtful.

The Google AdSense deal is still on the table. Could Yahoo shares be propped up by the Google's gravitational pull?

Yahoo is by no means circling the drain. But investors will be watching the skies closely, which could put Jerry Yang in the hot seat. I would offer as cautionary tale the downward spiral of Apple following the ousting of Steve Jobs.

This panel will be of interest to anyone working for a start-up or preparing to launch a new brand. The title is sensational, but the message is simple - it's about prioritization. You have to prioritize your focus and not put too much emphasis on your brand. Focus on what makes you stand out and make sure you get a good URL!! 

There's one word you should utter to the next client who asks you to design a logo: 'No.' Once the backbone of a brand's identity, logos have moved to the 'relatively unimportant' end of the 'important stuff' spectrum. This panel will explain how and why logos became irrelevant and will discuss how to break this news to your clients...and what the heck you do first on a design project if it isn't the logo.

The three takeaways:

-- The ways that logos limit a brand
-- The fact that sometimes, no logo is better than a logo
-- How to explain this to clients who can't imagine it.

Bryan Zmijewski Chief Instigator, LuckyOliver.com
Jeremy Britton Partner, Zurb Inc
Christina Wodtke LinkedIn
Luke Wroblewski Sr Principal, Yahoo! Inc

Make sure you understand the difference between a Logo and Logotype. Logo creation can distract you when you are trying to get a business started.

The costs of creating a logo:

1. printing/money
2. time
3. momentum

Industrial Revolution (manufactured goods were most important) to Information Age (URL is most important): In the industrial revolution, people started putting logos on things like soap to differentiate the product from another once the wrapper is off.

Now there are companies like LogoWorks.com that will make a logo for $25. Lots of times those logos turn out okay. Right now, people are paying a lot of money for URLs. If you can not get the URL you want, you will consider changing your name. Originally, logos were signature, but now they have been undermined by copycats. URL has been supplanting the quality of truth.

Early on, having a findable site is more important. Consistency is important, but it is a lot easier to be consistent when you start small.

Many times terms are used as identifiers, with variants on spellings (flickr.com) or strange combinations (Lucky Oliver).

You have 1.6 seconds a month with each person to make an impression on your customer online. Many times, it may be easier to remember the query string to get to the site, than remember the logo.

In start-up mode, every hour you spend working on something is an hour you spend not working on something else. The message is more important. Do you have time to work on the logo? When you are trying to build a company in 6 months how important is it to build the mark?

The icon does not come to play as much as it used to. You don't think about the Twitter logo, you think about the number you send messages to (40404). Is having a Yahoo logo on content important? Well-organized visual and structure seem to be more important. Does it seem professional? Is the logomark going to take it to the professional level. If so, you may need it. With phishing the link is more important than the mark.

Brand has overshadowed LOGO. You can't just have a Web site that is brochure-ware. It's about engaging customers and getting them to interact with you, not just about putting up a form.

I'm on vacation this week. I'm sipping a cup of coffee and looking out on the slopes of Squaw Valley through the living room window of my posh [I'm worth it] condo, home for a week. I told myself I would not think about work. But I'm reading the Saturday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, and I feel compelled to address the news of the day. Microsoft is beating kids up on the playground again, and taking lunch money.

Seeking to gain a competitive edge in the world of online advertising, Microsoft yesterday made public its intention to acquire Yahoo, Inc. The goal is to position the software giant to more directly compete with Google in the online arena. At nearly 45 billion dollars, the offer, if accepted, would represent the largest acquisition in Microsoft's history. I can only imagine that tensions are high in Silicon Valley today, with the campuses of all three players within just a few miles of one another. Kudos to business strategists at Microsoft; making their intentions public is a strike while the proverbial iron is hot. Amid dismal earnings reports and a slumping share price, Microsoft hopes to play on the fears of Yahoo shareholders and investors to gain support from within. Savvy.

My knee-jerk reaction is to hate on Microsoft relentlessly. Historically unapologetic in its road-blocking of the open source movement, Microsoft's shrewd business tactics and generally crappy products are a detriment to the user-centered vision of the internet that we at Capstrat are so passionate about. I've made it no secret that I would not mourn the death of The Worst Browser Ever Made. And I would rather scrawl on a rock with a sharpened cinder than open Microsoft Word. But in all fairness, the competitive advantage that Microsoft hopes to gain with this acquisition is in the realm of online advertising - all those little banner ads in the margins of web pages that no one ever clicks on. This doesn't really seem to have any negative implications on the average user's online experience. Google currently has this space on lock-down. Yahoo has been unable to provide any sort of competition to the darling giant of the industry, and its overall feebleness in the market has had investors popping antacids for some time now. In time, Google would surely deal the death-blow to Yahoo, right? So why, then, am I so uneasy about this deal?

Microsoft's protracted antitrust battle of the '90s still seems fresh in my mind. Acquiring a competitor of the size of Yahoo is sure to catch the attention of both federal and international watchdogs. Google's impressive market share (well over 50%) will probably work to Microsoft's advantage in any sort of antitrust litigation. But then again, Microsoft's force-feeding of Windows to the global marketplace isn't winning any popularity contests, either. Much like the Superbowl and the presidential primaries, I predict lots of yelling at the television at my house as this saga unfolds.

Microsoft lodges unsolicited bid to purchase Yahoo. Here's my perspective as a person first and as an interactive developer second.

Yikes! OK, well I don't search with Yahoo anyway, so...

But see, I trust del.icio.us with my bookmarks, I trust Flickr with my pictures, I would trust Yahoo as an OpenID provider, and I've included Yahoo-written JavaScript code (YUI) in my work. I'm not so sure I trust Microsoft with those things.