I’ve read a lot of the coverage around Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo but I decided to stay quiet for a bit to see how things played out. As you’d expect it’s pretty much a 50/50 split on people who think its either the best or worst idea of the year.

Personally, I think this is exactly what both companies need. Microsoft is very good at producing large projects with the ability to scale them. Yahoo is very good at throwing stuff together very quickly to see if it will stick. If both companies can bring their engineers together without losing all the good ones, the combined efforts of both companies will yield tremendous results for their shareholders.

That said, this would be a massive merger undertaking. And no doubt many things will get messed up in the process. For $40 something billion dollars, I hope the two teams spend a significant amount of time putting together a solid, detail oriented, merger plan. Without it, both companies will be even further behind 12 months following the merger.

Now with Yahoo’s board rejecting Microsoft’s offer; Microsoft is simply going to start talking to Yahoo’s largest shareholders to get them on their side and to influence the board. Yahoo probably wants another $5 – $10 a share. Fine. Microsoft will give it to them. Yahoo’s board should stop screwing around and get this merger done. They’ve been asleep at the wheel over the last few years. Time to do something right for the company and move on.