If Microsoft succeed in taking over Yahoo! I am mostly not bothered as there are alternatives to most of Yahoo!’s services. The thing that worries me (not in a loosing sleep way, mind) is that Flickr will be destroyed. Microsoft don’t want to take over Yahoo! just to have another company in their portfolio, they will want to integrate its services with theirs and probably re brand them all. At the minute Flickr is a very well laid out site and quite minimalistic despite the large array of features it has.In this regard it is still very different looking to Yahoo!’s other sites. Now add Microsoft’s style of site to this and you have a mess, even worse if they go down the MSN branding route. Another problem is that the MSN sites and MSN messenger carry adverts, whose to say that Microsoft will just be happy to make a small amount of money they make on the Flickr pro accounts and leave it at that rather than plastering it will ads to make a bit more. I hope Microsoft loose this battle but failing that, that they think carefully before making any changes to the services they acquire.
[The mock up Microsoft Flickr logo is courtesy of dr_lopbot]