Rooting for the underdog…

Monday, April, 28, 2008 by Mel Phillips.

It’s hard to feel real secure when your company is about to be taken over, so I feel for the employees at Yahoo today.  It reminds me of being at CBS Records when Sony Corp. bought us.  In that situation you wait for the other shoe to drop.  That other shoe is your job.  The Steve Ballmer ultimatum for Yahoo to accept Microsoft’s offer has passed and now Ballmer  is weighing a fight to tell Yahoo’s board to not bother coming back from their vacations…

Both companies have gained from this takeover threat - Yahoo stock is up in European trading this morning and Microsoft likewise.  Wall Street gains should follow for both.  I’ve never been a big fan of takeovers, so I find myself rooting for Yahoo.  It’s not like rooting for Tampa Bay to win the World Series or for the neighborhood Mom & Pop to come up with enough money to survive a takeover but it is the “T” word nonetheless…

By the way, Microsoft has issued another ultimatum, this one to Dell to cut off supplying Windows XP at the end of June.  Dell, which has been selling the operating system to its customers will defy the ultimatum and continue to sell XP.  As with the Yahoo situation, both Dell and Microsoft are win-winning.  Microsoft gets Vista sales credit under the Vista licensing of XP and Dell provides a good, fully loaded operating system for its customers…

In the early 60s Dionne Warwick  had a hit that was written for underdogs.  Change the letter “m” in the second word of the title to “t” and sing along with Dionne…

10 Timeline Memories:

1. 1789]   Mutiny on the Bounty:   The crew of the British ship Bounty set Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific…
2. 1914]  Cooool:  Willis H. Carrier  patents the design for his air conditioner…
3. 1947]  No termites allowed:  A six-man expedition sails from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named Kon-Tiki  on a 101-day journey across the Pacific to Polynesia…
4. 1959]  Fade to black:  “Arthur Godfrey and his Friends” says ‘sayonara‘ after a run of 10 seasons…
5. 1965]   Dropping the second “A“:  The “My Name is Barbra” special scores huge numbers for CBS-TV… 
6. 1965]  Higher and higher:  Lindsey Nelson  does the Mets game from a gondola, suspended 208 feet above the Houston Astrodome field…
7. 1975]  Two Beatles on the tube:  Ringo Starr guests on “The Smothers Brothers” and John Lennon on “The Tonight Show”…
8. 1985]  Billy’s back:  Billy Martin  becomes Yankee manager for the 4th time.  Do you see a pattern developing???
9. 1994]  Guilty as charged:  Former CIA operative Aldrich Ames, a double-spy for the Soviets is sentenced to life in prison without parole…
10. 2004]  A boo-boo Ghraib:  The first photos of Abu Ghraib  are shown on “60 Minutes“…

Music Memories:

• 1966]  Number One on this date:  “Good Lovin” - Young Rascals…1974]  “Loco-Motion” - Grand Funk…1983]  “Beat It” - Michael Jackson…

Commentary:

We lost two good Boston media people last week with the passing of sportscaster Don Gillis, a radio-TV personality since the 60s.  Don was 85 and had suffered from several strokes of late… Betsy Henning, wife of John Henning, but a personality in her own right as Betsy Cohen, succumbed to cancer at the age of 66.  So sorry to hear about both passings…

“Happy Birthday…happy birthday”:

Jessica Alba (27), Penelope Cruz (34), Paul (CSI) Guilfoyle (53), Mary McDonnell (56), Jay Leno (58), Ann-Margret (67) and Blossom Dearie (82)…

Timeline Countdown:  5 days until the Kentucky Derby, 12 days until Mother’s Day and 28 days until Memorial Day…

Posted in Today's Post | No Comments »