Microsoft won't rush Yahoo integration

 

Gallery

By Stuart Turton

Posted on 10 Mar 2008 at 12:01

Microsoft has admitted the potential difficulties of integrating Yahoo and says it intends to take the process slowly should the internet company accept its $41.4 billion offer.

"I'm no in any way unrealistic about the challenges that would confront us," says Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, during an interview reported in the Financial Times. "They have a number of different types of technologies. They have their own corporate culture."

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

Ozzie says Microsoft is determined not to disrupt existing services for consumers and advertisers by racing to consolidate the companies, despite the financial benefits such an approach would yield.

Ozzie also says that Microsoft's push to offer more online services would also bear fruit this year, hinting that an online version of Office could be among the offerings.