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Speaking at the “Web 2.0” conference in San Francisco earlier this week Yahoo CEO seemed to invite Microsoft to make another acquisition bid for the portal. “To this day the best thing for Microsoft to do is buy Yahoo,” the BBC quotes Yang telling interviewer John Battelle. This morning, from Australia, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer […]
Everyone at Yahoo must be totally exhausted — perhaps most of all CEO Jerry Yang. It’s probably apprpriate to now use modifiers such as “beleaguered” or “embattled” to describe Yang. Mike Arrington has called for Yang to be replaced, as have others before him. After the termination of the Google paid search deal yesterday, more […]
Only days after the two companies submitted a modified proposal to try and win the favor of anti-trust regulators, Google has unilaterally decided to discontinue its paid-search agreement with Yahoo, citing “a protracted legal battle but also damage to relationships with valued partners.”
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Billionaire inventor/corporate gadfly Carl Icahn, who owns 5 percent of Yahoo and is now a board member, continues to publicly advocate a MIcrosoft deal for the portal site. Icahn has at least two board members aligned with his positions (former Viacom CEO Frank J. Biondi Jr. and former Nextel CEO John H. Chapple) based on […]
Texas Republican Congressman and Google critic Joe Barton wants more information about the proposed paid-search deal between Google and Yahoo. Dissatisfied with Yahoo’s responses to his questions to date, Barton has asked the US Department of Justice to “thoroughly investigate issues of competition and privacy that Yahoo failed to address fully.” He is concerned about […]
Silicon Alley Insider was reporting that a Yahoo-AOL deal was imminent. Now the site says that a source within Time Warner contradicted the imminent claim but says the parties are still talking. Meanwhile just a hop, skip and a jump from AOL’s Virgina headquarters, Google and Yahoo are seeking to head off a US Justice […]
Mithras Capital, a small Yahoo institutional shareholder, is suggesting that Microsoft take another look at Yahoo and buy the company for $22 per share. That’s $9 less than Microsoft’s original bid for Yahoo during the takeover saga earlier this year. Yahoo shares are now trading near their 52 week low.
Against the backdrop of economic meltdown Yahoo and AOL are reportedly continuing their merger talks in earnest. We wrote about the potential combination several times during the initial wave of MicroHoo negotiations, when Yahoo approached TimeWarner as an alternative to Microsoft, and more recently again.
With Yahoo’s stock nearing its 52 week low, conspiracy theorists might think that the Financial Times report about the resumption of merger talks between AOL and Yahoo was based on news leaked with the intention of boosting Yahoo and/or TimeWarner shares. However, it appears that discussions which began to fend off Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo […]
Last week Google confirmed that it had made its first Korean acquisition, a popular blogging platform called TNC, which has approximately 400,000 users, including a majority of Korea’s top bloggers (per VentureBeat). The site’s founder and CEO Chang-Won Kim said that he thought Google bought the company to boost its “minor” market share in Korea, […]
Search Marketing company consolidation continues with iProspect acquiring Range Online Media today. This acquisition increases iProspect’s US staff base by more than 60 employees, bringing the them to a U.S. employee base to over 230. How will this impact the respective client’s accounts? The current Range customers will continue to be serviced by the same […]
AdAge reported that Microsoft and mega-agency WPP have restarted talks that may result in the sale of Interactive agency Avenue A to the latter. Avenue A was part of the $6 billion deal for aQuantive that also included Atlas and the DrivePM ad network.
Our friends over at the Search Marketing Standard, one of the first successful search marketing focused print magazines, has been acquired by iNET Interactive. Search Marketing Standard launched in the first month of 2006, with many supporters. Boris Mordkovich & Eugene Mordkovich of MordComm founded and finance the magazine. iNET Interactive’s Director of Marketing, Kevin […]
For months there’s been anticipation that some or all of AOL would be sold. Talks between AOL and Yahoo have been ongoing, as they have with Microsoft to a lesser degree. But months ago AOL decided to separate its ISP business (8.7 million subscribers) from its advertising and consumer portal businesses. According to the Wall […]
Perhaps we’re coming to the point where we’ll no longer be writing about Microsoft and Yahoo and their failed courtship. We’ll see. Today Yahoo survived its long-anticipated shareholder meeting. It’s detailed in this CNET blog post. At the conclusion of the meeting, Yahoo issued a statement that its slate of directors was elected, following the […]
Google to Extend Reach With Venture-Capital Arm from the Wall Street Journal reports Google is in the early stages of putting together a corporate venture-capital unit within Google. Google’s senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer, David Drummond, is reported to be leading up the new unit. Google has hired William Maris, […]
The never-ending MicroHoo drama has provided virtual reams of blog posts and endless fodder for speculation. The latest installment involves the question of whether Carl Icahn’s proxy battle for control of Yahoo’s board will see any success. In case you joined this story late, institutional shareholders are frustrated by Yahoo’s unwillingness to take the original […]
Google announced that it had acquired “Begun,” a Russian contextual ad service, for $140 million. The service had been a unit of Russia’s Rambler Media. Rambler also owns the Russian portal Rambler.ru. As part of the deal, Google-enhanced search results and ads will appear on the Rambler portal site. According to Reuters, Rambler expects annual […]
Many people have posed the question: why does Google seem to often fail to efficiently integrate or develop companies and properties it has acquired? Early mobile social network DodgeBall is the most obvious example of a promising startup acquired by Google that has languished. But as TechCrunchIT points out, there are others and, more specifically, […]
Reuters is reporting that TimeWarner is seeking to strike a deal with either Yahoo or Microsoft for AOL. It says that talks between the companies “have taken on new urgency ahead of Yahoo’s Aug 1 shareholders meeting.”
There’s that moment in almost any thriller, action, or horror film when you’re supposed to think everything is resolved, but the bad guy, monster, or adversarial force makes a final appearance, startling the hero and the audience. I’m not implying anything about any of the involved parties in particular, but it appears we’re in that […]
There are two views of the just-announced Yahoo reorganization. An upbeat assessment sees it as an instrumental step toward realizing Yahoo’s broad platform ambitions; a more skeptical perspective sees it as yet another run at streamlining the organization in the wake of the upheavals of the failed Microsoft acquisition bid and the departures of key […]
When the highly anticipated Yahoo-Google paid search deal was announced on Thursday, the fallout and speculation began immediately: would it help Yahoo or was it an act of capitulation to Google? Coming as it did with the formal end of talks with Microsoft, was it a betrayal of Yahoo shareholders? Ironically, insurgent Yahoo stockholder and […]
A Delaware judge presiding over shareholder litigation against Yahoo has denied the company’s request to maintain a seal over the complaint in the matter. (Complaints are typically public records unless the parties can meet a high bar to keep them confidential.) The news was first reported by Reuters and Barrons.
Yesterday at Google HQ in Mountain View, during the Q&A session following the discussion of Google Health, a reporter sneaked in a question about Microsoft-Yahoo. Marissa Mayer declined to answer the question, as Google CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Brin and Page were mulling their collective response to the new and reduced Microsoft overture (pun […]
Dear Carl. We here at Yahoo got your letter telling us how much we suck. We think you suck more And let us tell you why. That’s the short summary of Yahoo’s response to Carl Icahn’s letter yesterday telling Yahoo he will fight to oust their board and do a deal with Microsoft, assuming Microsoft […]
At one point or another, most of the big online media companies have talked about buying Facebook. Yahoo is rumored to have made an early offer of almost $1 billion for the company, which was (obviously) turned down. But as the MicroHoo discussions appeared to be deteriorating, Microsoft apparently made some formal inquiries about Facebook’s […]
With the first day over since Microsoft bailed on Yahoo, I find myself chuckling with agreement over Valleywag’s "Post-Microsoft, Yahoo shares ‘plunge’ from $19 to $24.60" headline. Yahoo fared far better than many had predicted. Part of that may be due to thoughts that it is not all over yet for a Yahoo-Microsoft marriage or […]
Yahoo’s generally solid quarter yesterday helps make the case that the company is worth more than the current value of Microsoft’s bid. In advance of the earnings call yesterday, however, Steve Ballmer said that the company was not prepared to offer any more than what it already had put on the table. Now today, in […]
Today after the stock market closes, Yahoo will report earnings. Silicon Alley Insider offers a preview based on sources cited in the NY Post: “Several sources close to Yahoo! said the company will not blow the lid off earnings, but will likely beat analysts’ expectations of 9 cents a share and revenue estimates, excluding traffic […]
Since Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion, interesting times have been ours to enjoy here in the land of the search engines. On April 5 2008, Steve Ballmer stepped up the game by giving Yahoo! 3 weeks to make a decision on the 44.6 billion dollar offer or they’ll bypass the board and […]
Travel search site Farecast was rumored to be a takeover target recently and the CEO has confirmed that the site has indeed been acquired by Microsoft. TechCrunch, citing John Cook at the Seattle PI, says the deal was worth something in the $100-$115 million range.
If MicroHoo were a movie we might be in Act III, moving quickly toward an exciting climax. It’s a good movie so far because there are equally matched antagonists, unpredictable twists, a concrete deadline, and an uncertain outcome. Indeed, that outcome seems to grow increasingly uncertain amid a surreal shifting of alliances. For example, News […]
Yahoo, AOL Close In on Tie-Up Deal from the Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo and AOL are close on finalizing a deal that would combine parts of both companies. The deal would bridge Timer Warner’s Internet operations with Yahoo by folding the AOL unit into Yahoo. In return, Time Warner would make a cash […]
Yahoo has confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that it will be testing Google’s paid search ads alongside its own for the next two weeks and involving no more than 3 percent of Yahoo’s search pages in the United States. From the Yahoo statement
On Saturday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent a public ultimatum of sorts to Yahoo’s board: accept our offer or we’ll force it on you. Today Yahoo responded publicly to Ballmer’s letter. In essence it says: we’re “not opposed to a transaction” but pay us more.
In articles on the NY Times and Wall Street Journal sites this morning, more details are surfacing about the intended Q3 rollout of Yahoo’s new ambitious, integrated ad platform — what President Sue Decker previously called “APEX” (advertiser-publisher exchange) and is now apparently being called “AMP.”
Microsoft has had enough, it seems. The company has fired off a written ultimatum to Yahoo’s board. Either conclude an agreement to be acquired by Microsoft or Microsoft will engage in a proxy fight to oust the board with one favorable to the deal. Microsoft says that despite what it calls its “generous” offer, Yahoo […]
Reuters is reporting that Microsoft may be reconsidering its bid for Yahoo in light of changed market conditions and signs of potential weakness in Yahoo’s “core business.” The article cites as sources the familiar unnamed “people familiar with the matter.” There are few details and nobody from either company comments.