Microsoft have come up with a follow-up to their first Gates & Seinfeld TV ad.

This time the lads are ‘connecting’ with people (by moving into their house and taking over the daughter’s pink bedroom)…

Microsoft’s advertising boffins decided to employ the services of one Jerry Seinfeld (he who is famous for creating a sit-com that was ‘about nothing’) and their ex-CEO and one of the world’s wealthiest men, Bill Gates. Makes sense I suppose,- could see them forming a credible comedy pairing… until I saw the ad they created…

Now, to be fair, this ad is just supposed to “set up the characters” and not specifically meant to be amusing… but it’s hard to see how it advertises anything that’s anything to do with Microsoft (unless they ARE actually going to make our PC’s tastier and chewier…)

There’s more of these to come so I guess, ultimately, time will tell whether this pairing works or not. For now, though, Apple have nothing to worry about. Their ads which are shorter and cleverer, still reign supreme.

Here’s Bill doing his “Yo yo yo, homeys!” pose. Anyone out there with Photoshop “skillz” want to paste a basketball shirt onto him? I would, but I’m rushing out the door to work… Maybe I’ll get on it later :p

Anyway,- Bill Gates (the man who, 4 years ago, said that spam would be eradicated within 2 years) has stepped down from his position at Microsoft and will now concentrate on his charitable efforts. BBC News have a good breakdown of the good and bad, the hits and misses of Bill Gates here. It kinda paints Microsoft in a bad enough light, making out that they eat other companies for breakfast, are slow on the uptake, quite litigious, and still enormously successful – all of which, of course, is true.

I wonder what Bill would make of this…

(a van I saw in Swords today)

Just saw this… According to the Wall Street Journal:

After a series of meetings over the past week, Yahoo’s board determined that the $31 per share offer “massively undervalues” Yahoo [...] The decision to reject the offer signals that Yahoo’s board is digging in its heels for what could be a long takeover battle. The company is unlikely to consider any offer below $40 per share [...] It’s unclear whether Microsoft would be willing to pay such a premium, which would increase the value of its original cash and stock bid by more than $12 billion. [...] Yahoo’s board appears to be betting that Microsoft doesn’t want to “go hostile” and try to acquire the company against the wishes of management and the board.

Oh, things are hotting up alright…

[edit]: More here. Currently both MS and Yahoo! are refusing to comment on this report…