Top Items:
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).
Discussion:
mathewingram.com/work, Googlified, Joe Duck, Paul Kedrosky's …, broadstuff and Creative Capital
RELATED:
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.
Discussion:
Webomatica, Silicon Alley Insider, Guardian, Search Engine Land, WebProNews, eWeek and CNET News.com
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?
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.
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:
DealBook, Microsoft Watch, Deal Journal, Between the Lines, BetaNews, ClickZ, AppScout, Googling Google, Yahoo!, Paul Kedrosky's …, Groundswell, greg hughes, Bits, Salon, WebProNews, WinExtra, One By One Media, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, Search Engine Journal, rc3.org, The Web Services Report, CIO.com, Hardware 2.0, Forrester's Marketing Blog, How To Split An Atom, Network World, Todd Watson, paidContent.org, All about Microsoft, Yahoo! Finance, Telegraph Blogs, RyanSpoon.com, Web X.0, franticindustries, Tech Tracks, Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog, The Technology Chronicles, Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard, Searchviews and Techlog
Joe Nocera / New York Times:
A Giant Bid That Shows How Tired the Giant Is — Oh, how the mighty have fallen. — This may seem like an odd way to characterize a company that just announced its willingness to plunk down $44.6 billion to make its first hostile takeover ever. A company that will probably generate …
Bill Burnham / Burnham's Beat:
Microsoft/Yahoo: A Bad Deal For Silicon Valley — There's a ton of discussion today about Microsoft's unsolicited bid for Yahoo. Much of the discussion focuses on whether or not the deal is a good thing for Microsoft, Yahoo or Google's shareholders. While it's possible it could be a good or bad deal …
Louise Story / New York Times:
Deal That May Create More, Not Less, Competition — In most industries, a merger of two major companies would cause everyone else to panic over a decline in competition. — But in the case of the online advertising market, advertising and media executives said on Friday that they liked the prospect of a combined Microsoft and Yahoo.
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 …
Paula Rooney / Open Source:Yahoo! buy would give Microsoft ownership of open source e-mail, projects, code.
Discussion:
TeleRead
Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed:Microsoft/Yahoo: Killing the Deal, 101
Discussion:
Trends in the Living Networks
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:MSFT + YHOO: What Would Microsoft Yahoo Look Like?
Discussion:
eWeek, Yahoo! Finance, IDG News Service, Search Engine Journal, Tech Tracks, Traffick, Paul Kedrosky's … and Screenwerk
Joseph Weisenthal / paidContent.org:MSFT-YHOO: Analysts' First Take: Agreement Likely; Major Premium …
Ashkan Karbasfrooshan / HipMojo.com: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
Discussion:
HipMojo.com
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.
RELATED:
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.
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.
Discussion:
TechWeb, Googlified, Download Squad, Unofficial Google …, TECH.BLORGE.com and Web Analytics World
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 …
Arn / MacRumors:
MacBook Air 1.6Ghz HDD vs 1.8Ghz SSD Benchmarks — Many readers are reporting shipments and delivery in our MacBook Air forum. First impressions and notes of the MacBook Air are being compiled in this thread. — Few head to head comparisons between the Solid State Drive (SSD) …
Alexander Rose / Long Views:
Decision: Blogs vs. New York Times — February 1st, 02008 by Alexander Rose — Long Bets has arrived at a decision for Long Bet #2 between blogger Dave Winer and Martin Nisenholtz of the NY Times. At stake is US$2000.00 plus half the interest that has accrued over the last 5 years in the Farsight Fund …
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
Is Twitter the Tech Version of Britney Spears? — We all know that as Britney Spears continues to fall further and further down and it seems the further down she falls, the more people watch her, write about her and photograph her. In fact, the Fox news here in NYC (#1 market) …
Discussion:
Scobleizer
Jay Adelson / Digg the Blog:
Save the Date: Announcing Digg Town Halls — We're always looking for ways to have more conversations with you to learn how we can improve Digg. To do this on a regular basis, we are launching a series of Digg Town Hall Meetings. We're holding the first of these the evening of Monday February 25th …
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Dell Latitude E-series leaked — We've got a bit of preliminary dirt on Dell's new, soon-to-be-announced Latitude E-series machines, and we're liking what we see. So far we know there will be a 4.25 pound / 14.1-inch and 5 pound / 15.4-inch version, both with WXGA and WXGA+ LED backlit displays …
