Top Items:
Microsoft:
Microsoft Proposes Acquisition of Yahoo! for $31 per Share — Transaction valued at approximately $44.6 billion in cash and stock; provides 62 percent premium to current trading price for Yahoo! shareholders; combined entity to create a more competitive company, providing superior value to shareholders …
Discussion:
Googling Google, Salon, The Web Services Report, Deal Journal, Between the Lines, Bits, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Groundswell, ClickZ, The Technology Chronicles, Techlog, San Francisco Chronicle, Hardware 2.0, Search Engine Land, Forrester's Marketing Blog, Paul Kedrosky's …, A VC, CNET News.com, CIO.com, Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard, WebProNews, Search Engine Journal, Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog, All about Microsoft, ReadWriteWeb, MarketWatch, SEO and Tech Daily, One By One Media, NewTeeVee and James Governor's Monkchips
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Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Microsoft to Yahoo: Two Days to Respond or Else! — Sources at Yahoo tell me that Microsoft made its most recent overtures right after Yahoo announced its earnings Tuesday and then told Yahoo execs they had two days to respond or Microsoft would go public with the offer.
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Hold Everything! We May Get Another YHOO Bidder! * — A Valley source is hearing that a major private-equity firm was just days away from making its own bid for Yahoo when the Microsoft bomb hit this morning. (The same source now reports that TWO firms were circling, both big New York-based shops).
Scott Gilbertson / Compiler:
Flickr Rebellion Brews at Specter of M$ Acquisition — A small but vocal minority on Flickr are already staging online protests at the prospect of a Microsoft takeover. Flickr is one of several popular Web 2.0 websites owned by Yahoo that loyal users fear will suffer under Microsoft ownership.
Jim Badenhausen / Yahoo!:
Media Response — 02-01-08 Yahoo! Board of Directors to Evaluate Unsolicited Proposal From Microsoft — Media Hotline — Robinson Lerer & Montgomery for Yahoo! Inc. — FAQ: Unsolicited Proposal From Microsoft — Q1. How is Yahoo! responding to Microsoft's proposal?
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
What Would a Combined Microsoft-Yahoo Look Like? — Microsoft's $31 a share offer for Yahoo is made possible by Yahoo's slumping shares (Yahoo's stock was trading at about $31 a year ago). While Yahoo has rejected Microsoft's entreaties in the past, with Terry Semel stepping down as chairman …
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Microsoft Is Building a Spaceship Out of Spare Parts — I used to write about bank mergers, and those always struck me as taking two aircraft carriers and building a new one out of the parts. — For Microsoft, trying to build a new Internet portal-search engine-advertising network-cloud computing company …
Yahoo!:
Yahoo! Board of Directors to Evaluate Unsolicited Proposal From Microsoft — Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today said that it has received an unsolicited proposal from Microsoft to acquire the Company. The Company said that its Board of Directors will evaluate …
Discussion:
DealBook, Search Engine Land, GigaOM, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and Alice Hill's Real Tech News
Michael Liedtke / Associated Press:
Microsoft makes $42B bid for Yahoo — SAN FRANCISCO - Unable to topple Google Inc. on its own, Microsoft Corp. is trying to force crippled rival Yahoo Inc. into a shotgun marriage, betting nearly $42 billion that the two companies together will have a better chance of tackling the Internet search leader.
Discussion:
Tech Confidential, DailyTech, paidContent.org, Traffick, BeyondVC, The Tech Report and rc3.org
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Microsoft Offers $44.6 Billion for Yahoo … My guess: Sold. That's a big premium over Yahoo's current share price, and I don't see Yahoo getting there on their own any time soon. — Engineering-wise, it's interesting. Yahoo's stuff is almost all written in PHP, and runs on FreeBSD and Red Hat Linux servers.
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
MSFT + YHOO: What Would Microsoft Yahoo Look Like? — So the conference call has happened, and despite saying it has a plan to digest Yahoo, Microsoft didn't share that with the world. Indeed, at one point it was said any plan depended on what Yahoo's leadership would suggest. That means it's time for What If.
Discussion:
IDG News Service, Yahoo! Finance, eWeek, Tech Tracks, Search Engine Journal and Traffick
Joseph Weisenthal / paidContent.org:
MSFT-YHOO: Analysts' First Take: Agreement Likely; Major Premium For Yahoo's Core Assets — Flash analyst commentary on the deal is starting to come in. Expect a lot more discussion today and in the days ahead. We'll update as we get more: — Imran Khan, JP Morgan: Quick reactions …
Long Zheng / istartedsomething:
Microsoft + Yahoo = Big Mess? — Everyone on the sideline seems to be very excited about possible Yahoo and Microsoft merger, but I'm not so sure it's going to turn out pretty. Microsoft has a history of making acquisitions, and few comes to mind of anywhere close to a success.
Discussion:
Brandon LeBlanc
Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:
Ballmer To Microsoft Troops: Listen Up, Too
Ballmer To Microsoft Troops: Listen Up, Too
Discussion:
Valleywag
Ashkan Karbasfrooshan / HipMojo.com:
Google's Investment in AOL Set Stage for MSFT/Yahoo! Merger/Acquisition
Google's Investment in AOL Set Stage for MSFT/Yahoo! Merger/Acquisition
Discussion:
Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
YHOO/MSFT Bidding War? MSFT to Raise Offer? Doubtful
YHOO/MSFT Bidding War? MSFT to Raise Offer? Doubtful
Discussion:
HipMojo.com
Bill Tancer / Hitwise Intelligence:
Microsoft and Yahoo!: Putting the Offer in Perspective
Microsoft and Yahoo!: Putting the Offer in Perspective
Discussion:
PC World
Brad Fitzpatrick / Google Code Blog:
URLs are People, Too — So you've just built a totally sweet new social app and you can't wait for people to start using it, but there's a problem: when people join they don't have any friends on your site. They're lonely, and the experience isn't good because they can't use the app with people they know.
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Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google Gathers Social Graph Information From The Web, Launches API — Tens of millions of people have been busy the last few years building Facebook's most valuable asset - their social graph. As people add friends, and those people add friends, Facebook gets to understand exactly how its users know each other.
CNN:
Third undersea Internet cable cut in Mideast — (CNN) — An undersea cable carrying Internet traffic was cut off the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, officials said Friday, the third loss of a line carrying Internet and telephone traffic in three days. — Ships have been dispatched to repair …
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Google Analytics Blog:
Urchin Software Beta Now Public — Today we're happy to announce that the Urchin Software from Google beta is now available for download at urchin.com. Urchin Software from Google is a web analytics product similar in scope to Google Analytics, except you install and manage the software on your own servers.
Paula Rooney / Open Source:
Yahoo! buy would give Microsoft ownership of open source e-mail, projects, code. Ugh. — Let's forget about search for a moment, and Microsoft's obvious need to buy a leading online company or face extinction. — Microsoft's proposed $45 billion buy of Yahoo would give the Redmond …
Discussion:
TeleRead
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Two videos of E-Lead's Noahpad in action — If our description from CES of the perplexing (and frankly inconvenient) navigation associated with E-Lead's Noahpad wasn't enough to truly depict what is going on with this thing, then perhaps these videos will help.
Discussion:
GottaBeMobile