could skip culture clash; but what about the tech-merger curse?
SEATTLE — Yahoo’s walls are awash in bright purples and yellows, while Microsoft’s campus is coated in drab neutrals. Yahoo’s co-founder holds the cutesy title of “chief Yahoo,” while Bill Gates was “chief software architect.” Yahoo epitomizes California cool; Microsoft is still trying to get over its competition-crushing past. But the culture clash may not be as big a stumbling block to the software giant’s rich buyout bid as some critics may think. Yahoo Inc. is still mulling over Microsoft Corp.’s offer, worth about $42 billion based on Microsoft’s closing share price Friday. Even if Yahoo’s board and shareholders approve the takeover, U.S. and European antitrust regulators must still sign off. Google Inc. stirred that pot Sunday with a blog post that called a combined company “troubling” from an antitrust standpoint; Microsoft followed with a statement of its own that the deal would actually improve competition. Yahoo might appear more laid back, but the two are culturally closer t
