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:
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Michael Liedtke / Associated Press:
Microsoft offers $44.6B for Yahoo — SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.'s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.
Discussion:
Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard, Tech Beat, Traffick, BeyondVC and The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
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 …
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
WOW. Microsoft Offers $44.6 Billion To Acquire Yahoo — Update: More on the deal here and here (email from Ballmer to all MS employees) — It's been rumored for a long time, but now it's reality. — Microsoft has made an unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo.
Discussion:
paidContent.org, CNET News.com, Ed Burnette's Dev Connection, Microsoft Watch, WebProNews, eWeek, Virtual Economics, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, Forbes, IDG News Service, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Ars Technica, ContextWeb Internet …, Silicon Alley Insider, Valleywag and SmoothSpan Blog
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 …
Fred / A VC:
You Had To See This Coming - MSFT To Buy YHOO — I was going to buy Yahoo! the other day. Mark and I were emailing. I was asking how much Yahoo!'s core search business was worth if it was given over to Google. He though maybe as much as $9/share. I looked into the value of Yahoo! Japan and Alibaba.
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Microsoft Makes $45 Billion Bid To Buy Yahoo — Microsoft is to bid $31 per share to Yahoo's board of directors to purchase the company, a deal potentially worth $45 billion. Below, more details, some history and analysis. We'll also keep updating this story, and we'll have a separate post linked …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, Techland, E-Commerce Times, MarketWatch, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, Search Engine Journal, Microsoft, The Register, Contentinople, ParisLemon, WebProNews, Electronista, Web Worker Daily, Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi, paidContent.org, Intuitive.com, CenterNetworks, MSNBC and Engadget
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo — SAN FRANCISCO — In a bold move to counter Google's online pre-eminence, Microsoft said Friday that it had made an unsolicited offer to buy Yahoo for about $44.6 billion in a mix of cash and stock. — If consummated, the deal would redraw …
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 …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Microsoft makes bid for Yahoo; May change the search game; Bid could rise — Microsoft said Friday that it is making an unsolicited offer of $31 a share, or $44.6 billion, to buy Yahoo in a move that would give the software giant more market share and become a significant threat to Google.
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.
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.
Bill Tancer / Hitwise Intelligence:
Microsoft and Yahoo!: Putting the Offer in Perspective
Microsoft and Yahoo!: Putting the Offer in Perspective
Discussion:
Between the Lines
Keith Regan / E-Commerce Times:
Microsoft Guns for Google With $44.6B Yahoo Bid
Microsoft Guns for Google With $44.6B Yahoo Bid
Discussion:
Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog
Matt Asay / The Open Road:
Open-source silver lining in Microsoft's $44.6 billion wedding vow to Yahoo?
Open-source silver lining in Microsoft's $44.6 billion wedding vow to Yahoo?
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
MSFT-YHOO: Combo Would Hasten The Mainstreaming Of Digital Advertising
MSFT-YHOO: Combo Would Hasten The Mainstreaming Of Digital Advertising
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Microhoo! What Does it Mean for Users?
Microhoo! What Does it Mean for Users?
Discussion:
Telegraph Blogs
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Ballmer's Internal E-Mail to The Troops Explaining the Yahoo Acquisition
Ballmer's Internal E-Mail to The Troops Explaining the Yahoo Acquisition
Discussion:
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
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.
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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.
Joe Minihane / Gadget news and reviews:
New Playstation 3 this autumn? — Our man in the US has hunted down news of a size zero version of Sony's killer home hub. — Trawling the CES show last month, we happened across a rather juicy piece of gadget gossip. — According to a particularly well-informed insider …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Chatty Zuckerberg Tells All About Facebook Finances — Want to know about how privately held Facebook is doing from a financial point of view? — Well, just ask Mark Zuckerberg! — This afternoon, at an all-hands meeting held in a Palo Alto, Calif., theater near the social-networking site's headquarters …