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Yahoo Inc. left without a clear leader

Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang is to give up his position; this puts Yahoo in an awkward situation as they will not have a leader to guide them. The struggling Internet giant could now face another offer for someone to buy them out. Read more

Yahoo! Inc Investors after negotiations with Microsoft Corp

Things are not too cozy at Yahoo! Inc. these days, as investors are losing patience with Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang, they are not happy about the fact that talks with both Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. have broken down. Read more

Yahoo Zimbra to become hosted email service for education

Yahoo Zimbra already has 20 million mailboxes, and are now looking to expand that even further by going in to educational institutions. This will be done in two ways; the first is by advertising-supported e-mail option and the second, as a paid-for service. Read more

Yahoos to cut 10 percent of staff as profits are down

Yahoo are to lay off at least 10 percent of its staff before the end of the year, following reports that the search engine giant’s third-quarter profits are down. This will form part of Yahoo’s $400 million cost cutting plan. Read more

Yahoo! Mobile and Presidential Election 2008 Exit Poll

I don’t need to tell you that the use of alternative media is a major undercurrent in this year’s election. If you blink, you’ll miss the latest tech method the candidates are using to galvanize voters or the hottest election story that’s breaking online. (Can someone say McCain and Twitter?) Read more

Yahoo Mail informs users Mash will close down

Users of Yahoo Mash have been informed by Yahoo Mail that Mash will be closed down some time today. The users of the social network site have to face the fact that they will not be able to use Mash, Yahoo has thanked all those of have participated in the beta test.

I’m not sure if people will be as upset as Yahoo think as Mash did not really gain the response that Yahoo had hoped. The thing that is wrong is the fact that Yahoo only gave Yahoo Mash users one day to back up all their information. Read more

Combination of TV and Internet with Intel and Yahoo

There have been companies such as WebTV who tried to combine Internet capabilities and television viewing and have failed in the past, but there has been some success stories such as DirectTV initiative and Viiv, But now Santa Clara said they have found a a way to pair the two types of contents seamlessly.

At ADF this week, a new widget channel was announced by Intel who are in partnership with Yahoo, the concept is said to finally entice viewers into viewing the television as a portal through which they are able to access online data.

The Widget Channel will be powered by an Intel system-on-a-chip (SoC) product, and will contain “a high-performance Intel architecture processor core, multi-stream high-definition video processing, integrated graphics and lots of other functional units to aid set top boxes and other CE devices run multiple widgets concurrently with TV programming.” We presume these first devices will be based on the Intel CE 3100 the company announced today.

So Intel and Yahoo have designed a flexible system, and it will be capable of displaying widgets from multiple vendors and providers.

Source: arstechica

HP, Intel and Yahoo! Create Global Cloud Computing Research Test Bed

HP, Intel Corporation and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) today announced the creation of a global, multi-data center, open source test bed for the advancement of cloud computing research and education. The goal of the initiative is to promote open collaboration among industry, academia and governments by removing the financial and logistical barriers to research in data-intensive, Internet-scale computing.

The HP, Intel and Yahoo! Cloud Computing Test Bed will provide a globally distributed, Internet-scale testing environment designed to encourage research on the software, data center management and hardware issues associated with cloud computing at a larger scale than ever before Read more

Microsoft ends Yahoo takeover bid

Microsoft executives have said that they have now ended their bid to takeover Yahoo, which means that they will now have to find other ways to gain ground in online search.

Microsoft Corp. executives have now ruled against a acquisition of Yahoo Inc., they still acknowledge that Yahoo would have given them a much needed boost in the online search industry.

Latimes reports that Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell has told Microsoft investors that the odds of a takeover were “so small as to be essentially negligible.” He said that both sides still continue to disagree about how much Yahoo is worth.

Liddell also added that the value of Yahoo is now declining, so the $33 per share that Microsoft had offered is no longer worth the price, so they are not willing to pay that.

Liddell has said that Microsoft will not get as far as they would like online, as they would if they had Yahoo.

Microsoft looks at Powerset after Yahoo setback

Microsoft are not a company that spends to long licking its wounds, not long after the whole Yahoo saga, the software giant is now looking towards a new deal to buy semantic search engine Powerset. Microsoft are doing all they can to try and close the gap between themselves and Google. It looks as though Microsoft will stop at nothing to become the biggest search engine.

Microsoft has said that by purchasing Powerset, they will be able to deliver a smarter way of searching the web. Powerset is a totally different search engine to one that Microsoft use, they use “semantic Web” technology which brings up results that is based on an understanding of a words meaning, as well as the context of its use. This is a totally different concept to most other search engines like Google and Yahoo; they work by primarily matching words in queries to those on a web page.

Microsoft announced the news of this new deal on July 1 and has said that they share the same vision as Powerset. Early reports say that Microsoft has offered more than $100 million in order to acquire the company; however there is no official news on how much Microsoft will end up paying for Powerset.

If the deal does go through then this could be just what Microsoft need to try and close the gap on rivals Google, in some areas search engines like Powerset outperform the likes of Google. Microsoft is in a good position as Google will find it very hard to replicate the same results as Powerset. However; Microsoft has to make sure that they do not take any shortcuts; they will have to build everything from scratch.

Google has already hired some semantic search experts, in the hope of developing this technology for themselves, looks as though Microsoft is about to get the jump on them.

Adobe’s Google and Yahoo agreement: Search engines will see Adobe Flash-created content

This is breaking news and very good news at that, Adobe has new software that will make flash-created content more noticeable by search engines like Yahoo and Google. At the moment it seems that search engines like Google and Yahoo and other Web-search tools cannot easily recognize pages that have Flash-created images.

Many times we have searched the web to buy something and we end up seeing graphics built with Adobe Systems’ Flash software, have fun finding the exact product with a search engine, though. Because it seems Google and other Web-search tools can’t. Well Adobe has announced that they are taking steps to solve those problems, Adobe are providing Google and Yahoo with software that will makes these pages inside flash-powered sites show up much higher in search results, it will infuse those results with a much better result leading you to what you are really looking for much more easier and of course with more relevant details.

Adobe’s moves include providing Flash software that is more attractive to Web site developers and of course to persuade more consumers to visit its customers’ sites, Adobe’s Google and Yahoo agreement will be very competitive and is surely a smack in the face for Microsoft, who indeed makes web software that competes with Adobe’s. Just so you know flash sites often contain ads, sell products, promotes movies and much more, so the most important thing that should happen for the creators is for sites to show up where consumers are clicking.

So with Adobe providing Google and Yahoo with this all new software code and a very special version of its flash player, one that can expose the what-used-to-be hidden flash-content now seems a thing of the past.

Read the uncloaking ‘invisible’ Flash Web content over at CNET

Search deal with Google over Microsoft: Yahoo’s Roy Bostock and Jerry Yang explain

Its been some time now since we had all the statements flying back and forth from Yahoo and Microsoft over the possible purchase of Yahoo, today we are hearing that Yahoo has issued a letter to its shareholders to explain why they have made recent decisions. In the letter Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock explain in detail why they made a deal with Google over search and not with Microsoft.

The Washington Post have got the full letter that you can read by hitting the read link below this post, in a nutshell it seems that Google may have been the right deal and although Yahoo have steep fees now, they can decide to sell the Yahoo brand at a later date if thats convenient.

When we say Yahoo have done the right thing, we are taking into account they may be signing a search deal with Google to get Microsoft back to the table. Also the deal with Google could have been a way to make the stock market calm down a little and at least keep Yahoo share prices steady. Did this work?

Looking at the Yahoo share prices, this did not work and Yahoo has got to really make some tough decisions. Yahoo needs a Microsoft full buyout and Microsoft need Yahoo’s search business to have any real chance at taking some of Google’s market share.

This letter to shareholders confirms that Yahoo is sending a message to the market and Microsoft, as Washington Post put it, “If they want Yahoo’s search milk, they’re going to have to buy the cow”.

What have you made of Yahoo’s discussions with Microsoft regarding a potential transaction and where do you think this will be going?

Read the letter in full.

Microsoft Corp announced it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc

Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO).
“We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo! and the market as a whole. Our goal in pursuing a combination with Yahoo! was to provide greater choice and innovation in the marketplace and create real value for our respective stockholders and employees,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft.

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer. After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” said Ballmer.

“We have a talented team in place and a compelling plan to grow our business through innovative new services and strategic transactions with other business partners. While Yahoo! would have accelerated our strategy, I am confident that we can continue to move forward toward our goals,” Ballmer said.
“We are investing heavily in new tools and Web experiences, we have dramatically improved our search performance and advertiser satisfaction, and we will continue to build our scale through organic growth and partnerships,” said Kevin Johnson, Microsoft president for platforms and services.
Below is the text of the letter from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang.

May 3, 2008
Mr. Jerry Yang
CEO and Chief Yahoo
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Dear Jerry:

After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!.
I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo!’s Board of Directors for your consideration of our proposal. I appreciate the time and attention all of you have given to this matter, and I especially appreciate the time that you have invested personally. I feel that our discussions this week have been particularly useful, providing me for the first time with real clarity on what is and is not possible.
I am disappointed that Yahoo! has not moved towards accepting our offer. I first called you with our offer on January 31 because I believed that a combination of our two companies would have created real value for our respective shareholders and would have provided consumers, publishers, and advertisers with greater innovation and choice in the marketplace. Our decision to offer a 62 percent premium at that time reflected the strength of these convictions.
In our conversations this week, we conveyed our willingness to raise our offer to $33.00 per share, reflecting again our belief in this collective opportunity. This increase would have added approximately another $5 billion of value to your shareholders, compared to the current value of our initial offer. It also would have reflected a premium of over 70 percent compared to the price at which your stock closed on January 31. Yet it has proven insufficient, as your final position insisted on Microsoft paying yet another $5 billion or more, or at least another $4 per share above our $33.00 offer.
Also, after giving this week’s conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo! undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.
We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a “hostile” bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo! today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us for a number of reasons:

• First, it would fundamentally undermine Yahoo!’s own strategy and long-term viability by encouraging advertisers to use Google as opposed to your Panama paid search system. This would also fragment your search advertising and display advertising strategies and the ecosystem surrounding them. This would undermine the reliance on your display advertising business to fuel future growth.

• Given this, it would impair Yahoo’s ability to retain the talented engineers working on advertising systems that are important to our interest in a combination of our companies.

• In addition, it would raise a host of regulatory and legal problems that no acquirer, including Microsoft, would want to inherit. Among other things, this would consolidate market share with the already-dominant paid search provider in a manner that would reduce competition and choice in the marketplace.

• This would also effectively enable Google to set the prices for key search terms on both their and your search platforms and, in the process, raise prices charged to advertisers on Yahoo. In addition to whatever resulting legal problems, this seems unwise from a business perspective unless in fact one simply wishes to use this as a vehicle to exit the paid search business in favor of Google.

• It could foreclose any chance of a combination with any other search provider that is not already relying on Google’s search services.
Accordingly, your apparent plan to pursue such an arrangement in the event of a proxy contest or exchange offer leads me to the firm decision not to pursue such a path. Instead, I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft’s proposal to acquire Yahoo!.
We will move forward and will continue to innovate and grow our business at Microsoft with the talented team we have in place and potentially through strategic transactions with other business partners.

I still believe even today that our offer remains the only alternative put forward that provides your stockholders full and fair value for their shares. By failing to reach an agreement with us, you and your stockholders have left significant value on the table.
But clearly a deal is not to be.
Thank you again for the time we have spent together discussing this.
Sincerely yours,

Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft’s Yahoo Takeover: deadline is up and both sides are silent

Earlier this year around February 1st we heard that Microsoft had made an official proposal to acquire Yahoo, now this was big news and the $31 per share worked out at a total deal worth $44.6 billion and meant shareholders would get a 62 percent premium. Microsoft’s Yahoo Takeover took a turn for the worse when it was not accepted and Microsoft said they would “pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.”

So where does this put us today a few months on, well not very far as Mashable say the deadline set by Microsoft has expired and currently there is no news or reaction from either party. Many predictions have been made and some people in the business world feel that Microsoft may even lower their $31 per share bid as Yahoo’s quarterly financial results are relatively poor.

Microsoft have options and they can easily raise the bid, but might go hostile as Yahoo is something they want and in their own words “pursue all necessary steps”. For now we will have to wait, but I am sure the waiting will not be long and whatever happens it could well be today, although the story will carry on for sometime yet.

What’s your view of Microsoft taking over Yahoo?

Microsoft gives Yahoo three week ultimatum: Accept our offer

Microsoft has given Yahoo an ultimatum, either accept our offer within three weeks or we will lower our offer and then go direct to your shareholders. This big threat comes in the wake of the ongoing fight between two of the largest search engines.

Yahoo executives have rejected Microsoft’s $42 billion bid as they feel that the offer is too low. Steve Ballmer Microsoft’s chief exec has now deiced to play hardball, which is why they gave Yahoo the ultimatum.

Microsoft do not want this critically important opportunity to pass them by, it is thought that Yahoo will respond today.

Source – PC Pro

Microsoft and Yahoo discuss takeover: Will it happen

It is well known that Microsoft wish to purchase Yahoo, however the first stab at buying Yahoo did not go well for Microsoft. Since then both companies have met again over the possibility of a Microsoft takeover. As I mentioned above, Microsoft tried to make an unsolicited offer for the sum of $42 billion, one that Yahoo rejected.

The meeting between Microsoft and Yahoo, the second and third biggest search engine companies did not sit down to discuss money. Instead they wanted to meet so that they could discuss what Microsoft wanted to do with Yahoo if they did accept an offer.

Nothing else is known about the outcome of the meeting. Do you think that this takeover will ever happen?

Source - Reuters

Yahoo Buzz Live: is it as good as Digg though?

Yahoo Buzz is now live, for those of you who have not yet heard of Yahoo Buzz it is much like Digg. Yahoo Buzz will feature many of the popular stories that are on the internet right now, and just like Read more

Yahoo Planning A Possible Merger With AOL?

It has been reported that Yahoo, after rejecting Microsoft’s $44.6 billion takeover offer, is considering a merger with AOL. The company is said to turn down any offer from Microsoft that is under $40 per share. Yahoo has it’s work cut out if they are to convince Read more

Should Microsoft pay more for Yahoo: top investor thinks so

Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo a week ago was a good offer at a 60 percent premium, but a giant investment company that owns 11.4 percent of Yahoo wants the deal sweetened. Capital Research and Management wants to know how far Microsoft will go to buy Yahoo Read more

What will the new name be once Microsoft buys Yahoo?

We already gave you the latest news earlier today of Microsoft announcing offer of £46.6 billion for Yahoo (See Here), but we would love to know what the Read more

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