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Thursday, February 21, 2008

A $1 Billion Spoon Full of Severance Makes the Microsoft Go Down!

After we reported Tuesday that Yahoo plans to give employees new retention packages and enhanced severance benefits, we got a plethora of emails from Yahoos from all levels of the company.

The general response: Yahoo!! (with two, not one, exclamation points).

“This is just what we needed,” said one employee in a typical email. “We are all bumming about the inevitability of Microsoft taking over, so a spoon full of sugar will make this very sour medicine go down.”

Well, when you put it like Mary Poppins does, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer seems almost cuddly.

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About Kara

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »

Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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