Whether it is Microsoft, or some other suitor, Yahoo!’s days as an independent company seem numbered. And this is a sad thing for a company that created a unique culture that served as a model of excellence for Silicon Valleys and Alleys the world over.

I’ve never been an Microsoft employee, although I do have an offer letter from 1995 that I turned down in a misguided act of fealty to Apple, but I feel as if I understand the Microsoftie culture very well. Like Yahoo!, Microsoft has a one-of-a-kind culture. There are even books on how to run your life the Microsoft Way. The Microsoft Way is so virulent that their culture is often compared to Star Trek’s Borg–”You will be assimilated!”

Thus I don’t think this whole “buy Yahoo!” thing is going to work for the Yahoos (That’s what the cool Yahoo employees call themselves: Management Yahoos, Technical Yahoos, Paranoid Yahoos, Chief Yahoos.).

Yahoo! was not successful because of some grand scheme or patentable business model. Yahoo! was successful because Yahoos creatively solved technical and business problems in real-time. Yahoo! walked the Internet trapeze without a net and have only stumbled recently. Most of the Yahoos I know are excellent at improvisation. Yahoo! engineers used the Agile development methodology by nature not nurture.

One of the best things about Yahoo! engineering was Hack Day. One day a year every Technical Yahoo stopped what they were doing and mashed up something cool. Many of the best internally developed technologies at Yahoo! started out as Hack Day hacks.

I just don’t see Yahoos and Microsofties happily hacking their way into a united glorious future. It’s no surprise that some of the best hackers at Yahoo! are already making exit plans or happy that Yahoo! has made those plans on their behalf.

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