Things seem to be seriously shaking up over at Yahoo! lately. In addition to a 45 Billion hostile takeover bid from Microsoft, I just heard via Portfolio.com that Yahoo!’s entire design innovation team was fired, en masse. The whole team that focused on next-gen design is gone. It seems like Yahoo!, amidst increased operation costs etc is trying to scale back its operation to just its core competencies… probably a good move from a financial standpoint, however also a move that will basically guarantee a takeover soon. If a portal as large as Yahoo! can’t keep its operation rolling enough to stay on the very cutting edge of innovation, it’s doomed to be rolled into a company who can. In today’s super fierce market place, its innovate or die. So, no “design innovation team” = no future for Yahoo. That is unless they get bought, seriously turn themselves around, or re-invent themselves (which would be kind of a cop-out…).On a lighter note, I’m still glad to hear that Yahoo! is supporting OpenID... although this is more of a help for the OpenID project than it is for Yahoo!. In any case, good going on (at least) that one. Update 2/23/08… More woes for Yahoo, as they get sued for rejecting the Msft takeover..  (Read on AOL News)