Microsoft going after Yahoo Engineers

News.com writes that Bill Gates, Microsoft's Chairman, really wants Yahoo for its engineers.

This begs one question, why not poach them, the traditional way, rather than buying a company for $40 billion.

In an interview given at Stanford University, Gates acknowledged indirectly that Microsoft has so much catching up to do on Google that it can't do it organically and has to resort to buying another company.

Of course, the top talents could be lured away from Microsoft once the acquisition goes through; something that Jason Calacanis and others discussed at length on the TWIT podcast on Monday 18th.

But hang on. Yahoo already laid off a number of talented engineers as well which obviously need a new job.

Still, Yahoo is still the biggest internet property in the world according to a number of Internet statistics company and has a few great services as well - Flickr, Yahoo Mail, Answers, Pipes, Messengers etc. Tags: Microsoft, mergers and acquisitions, yahoo