Would being bought out by Microsoft deter you from using Yahoo Answers?

As you may or may not have heard, Microsoft is still very determined to purchase Yahoo. Here's a link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080201/ap_o...

One of their first moves on aquiring Yahoo would be to fire a bunch of Yahoo staff and they will not even commit to retaining anything from Yahoo.

IF Microsoft did buy out Yahoo, would this make you less likely to use any aspect of Yahoo or more likely? Hypothetically, of course.

Would being bought out by Microsoft deter you from using Yahoo Answers?security

I used to use my economic vote and my power of boycott to express dissatisfaction. That was in the seventies, before the Reagan era and the merger mania that took off for real in the eighties. Remember when Exxon competed with Mobil and Time with Warner? I used to joke that we should have a pool to bet on which would be the last two companies to merge (GE 鈥揗cKFC - AT%26T 鈥?Federal UPSexpress with General Motors 鈥?Exxaco 鈥?HBO - Disney or some such monstrosity 鈥?probably called GE%26T-FeUps-KFC鈥檇 . . . )

That, combined with the emergence of such behemoth octopi as Microsoft and Wal-Mart that by themselves are entire economic sectors and invade almost every home and life mean that you can鈥檛 boycott effectively unless you want to live like Osama bin Laden or the Unabomber.

So would Microsoft鈥檚 acquisition of Yahoo change my consumptive habits? Only insofar as Microsoft鈥檚 management affected the efficiency and quality of the product. If they don鈥檛 change Y!A, I probably won鈥檛 change either. Of course, what are the odds that that will happen, especially if, as you say, heads are rolling already. It鈥檚 the American way: find a thriving, prosperous business that is popular because it meets its customers needs, acquire it and change all of that, converting it into the same old dreck.