User experience figures prominently in Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo

In Microsoft’s open letter announcing their intentions to purchase Yahoo, they listed four areas of alignment as reasons why the acquisition and integration of the two companies made sense. They were:

• scale economics — increasing advertising strength and value proposition while lowering capital spending
• expanded R&D capacity — uniting know-how and people resource to create new innovations including better search, better advertising platforms, and yes Microsoft says, better user experiences.
• operational efficiencies — eliminating redundancies
• and emerging user experiences — “Our combined ability to focus engineering resources that drive innovation in emerging scenarios such as video, mobile services, online commerce, social media, and social platforms is greatly enhanced.”

I’m unsure if Steve Ballmer really knows what he means when he says “user experience,” but I do believe it’s a valid benefit, it’s a smart way to consider managing and valuing your business, and it’s just another example of the value that experiences are playing in the world.