goer.org

Welcome to goer.org

...and thanks for dropping by.

My name is Evan Goer. I'm a thirty-three-year-old technical writer working for Yahoo! in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've lived in this area for most of my life, and it's hard to imagine living anywhere else.

These days everyone seems to be keeping a blog, and who am I to swim against the tide? You can see the latest journal entry on this page, visit the main journal page, or even browse through almost six years of archives.

Topics of Interest

Aside from the journal entries, you might also be interested in:

• HTML Tutorial: There's some useful information here, but this tutorial has languished for years. We have top men working on it right now. Top Men.

• About: More information about me and this site, including contact information.

• Byron's Big Adventure: It's been several years since Byron's fabled trip to Viking School, and Byron's fashion sense has not improved in the slightest. Read on for some Real-Life Tales of Adventure on the High Sea... and much more!

• Crazy Mike's Shack-o-Law: Need free legal advice? Emphasis on free? (Wow, I had totally forgotten about this thing. And as a special bonus, you get to see the circa-2001 goer.org design in all its glory.)

Latest Journal Entry: The Five Stages of Pundit Grief

Denial

"Wow. I'm shocked Yahoo wasn't more reasonable. The stock will probably go down at least $5 on Monday. It is surprising that Ballmer walked away instead of trying a hostile bid at $33," said Walter Price, a senior portfolio manager at RCM fund management company in San Francisco, which had 21 million Microsoft shares and 2 million Yahoo shares as of the end of December.

Anger

Ms. [Laura] Martin also had harsh words for Yahoo’s management’s "unbelievable" actions. "This is management putting its employees and its job security ahead of current Yahoo shareholders’ interest,” she told the news service. She also told Reuters that she expects several shareholders lawsuits to be filed against the company on Monday.

Bargaining

"Had there been a full deal on the table, a hostile deal, at $34 or $35, we would have had to take a look at it," Bill Miller, a portfolio manager for Legg Mason, told The New York Times. "Our number was higher, but it doesn’t mean we would have rejected it."

Depression

Microsoft’s disappointing numbers, which sent its stock down 4.5 percent in after-hours trading, will only put pressure on the software behemoth to raise its bid.

On Wednesday, Steve – as in Steven Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive – cavalierly suggested that the company doesn't need Yahoo and can go it alone. (That's untrue, by the way. If Mr. Ballmer doesn't win Yahoo, his failure will be seen as a major management blunder, and shareholders could raise questions about his leadership.) He has also threatened to start a proxy contest by this Saturday unless Yahoo reaches a deal with them.

But Mr. Ballmer's tough talk now appears to be pure bluster ahead of what he knew was going to be a bad quarter.

Acceptance

"We believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal," Ballmer said in a statement.

Posted by Evan Goer on May. 04, 2008 at 9:56 PM | Comments (0)

And there are more journal entries available...