View this article at: http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/03/10/ms.on.yahoo.plans/

Monday, Mar 10, 2008 8:35am

MS: no immediate plans to m...

Microsoft would not immediately begin merging technology if its proposed takeover of Yahoo goes through, the company's chief software architect Ray Ozzie has explained in an interview. Although the two companies often have competing technologies, Microsoft would move slowly to integrate either firm's technology with the other. The work climates and technical foundations are said to be too different to encourage an early start and could alienate users if forced together too quickly.

"Technology companies, if they dive in and just smash things together for smashing them together’s sake, it’s reckless," Ozzie says.

The Windows developer is primarily interested in Yahoo for its web ad platform, which would serve as a rival to Google's dominant system. However, both also run search engines, photo sharing services, news portals, and other services that frequently overlap with one another, creating conflicts of interest. Yahoo has been resisting the deal in an attempt to maintain independence and recently called Microsoft's unsolicited move a distraction from revitalizing its core business.