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Posted
Jul 16 2008, 10:06 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
The back-and-forth competitive drama between Microsoft and Yahoo has opened a perfect opportunity for Time Warner to once again shop its AOL unit. Time Warner is reportedly looking at either merging AOL with Yahoo (with Time Warner getting a minority stake) or selling it outright to Microsoft. Time Warner shares have risen more than 2% today to $14.26 on the news, with Yahoo shares up nearly 4% to $22.38 and Microsoft shares up nearly 3% to $26.90.
Time Warner has wanted to offload AOL for a while, but now Microsoft and Yahoo are scrambling for Plan B's in the aftermath of failed buyout talks. AOL has a growing ad network and an aggressive new strategy, and could be a decent acquisition for either company. The question is, where should it end up?
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Posted
Jun 13 2008, 09:41 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Any way you look at it, yesterday was a dark day for Yahoo. The stock crumbled 10% after the company confirmed a Microsoft deal was dead. Three key Yahoos announced they were leaving, adding to the ongoing employee exodus. Yahoo announced an advertising sales deal with Google, but it wasn't significant enough to sway angry shareholders. The company's stock isn't faring any better today -- down 6% on heavy volume to $22.14 at 11 a.m. PST.
We won't see the full implications of Yahoo's moves for a while. Clearly, Yahoo needed breathing room, and outsourcing some search business to Google accomplishes that. Yahoo gets Microsoft and Carl Icahn off its back and can figure out a new strategy -- and it gets a new source of short-term revenue. But Yahoo has let Google in the front door, and now risks the possibility
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Posted
Jun 12 2008, 01:04 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Some of that stampeding sound on the Street today came from Yahoo investors running for the exits. Shares of the company are down 11% on huge volume to $23.37 after the company said all merger talks with Microsoft are dead. Microsoft had zero interest in renewing any talks, according to a Yahoo statement. Microsoft shares are up 4% today to $28.29.
Yahoo and Google are reportedly set to announce some sort of partnership this afternoon. Stay tuned.
Update: Yahoo hired Google in a nonexclusive deal to sell some online ads in the U.S. and Canada.
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Posted
Apr 11 2008, 12:09 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
My, how things can change in a week. Last Friday, Microsoft was putting the screws to Yahoo, telling Reuters it was "evaluating" its $31-a-share bid for the company because Yahoo has dropped in value. This week, a furious round of wheeling and dealing has given Yahoo the edge. I have to hand it to CEO Jerry Yang. His flirtation with AOL and Google is putting incredible pressure on Microsoft to raise its offer. The market seems to like where all this is headed: Yahoo shares are
up slightly from where they started the week and closed today at $28.34. The Street seems to think a Microsoft acquisition is still the most likely scenario, and Yahoo shares are up because of a general belief that Yang can extract more money out of the deal. And while things today may appear murkier than ever, this corporate drama seems to be careening (wildly, perhaps) to some sort of closure, possibly in the next week.
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Posted
Apr 04 2008, 12:23 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
It's either a slow news day or people are starved for developments in the Microsoft-Yahoo saga. How else to explain the attention being given today to an article that says nothing happened in the on-again, off-again acquisition talks between the two companies? And late this afternoon, we get word that Microsoft might be "evaluating" its bid. Oh, brother.
According to the WSJ story, the two sides met, talked and left without resolving differences. Microsoft doesn't want to raise its initial bid (valued now at about $42 billion), and Yahoo won't enter formal negotiations unless more money is on the table. That's about where they were a month ago when the two companies met to chat.
The next date to watch for is April 22, when Yahoo reports its first-quarter earnings. If it has a blow-out quarter, it will certainly gain more leverage in negotiations. If it gives a less noteable performance, it will give up ground. Companies can tweak earnings a million different ways, and I bet Yahoo has done everything it can to produce an impressive quarter.
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Posted
Mar 31 2008, 01:23 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Yahoo has been busy, busy, busy with new product rollouts these days, perhaps trying to make itself more valuable as it negotiates an acquisition deal with Microsoft. The newest offering, unveiled today, is a Web site called Shine. The site is for women, and while it seems to be a little lacking in real news (what, women don't care about finance?), it thankfully doesn't read like a Cosmo cover. If Shine can stand out from the legions of other sites that target the female demographic, Yahoo could have a pretty nifty little advertising vehicle on its hands. Here's what some others are saying about Shine's debut today:
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Posted
Mar 14 2008, 12:23 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Yahoo seems to be dropping its anyone-but-Microsoft merger attitude. Senior executives from both companies met on Monday to discuss Microsoft's cash-and-stock acquisition offer, although "discuss" might be too strong a word, since the Yahoos "mostly listened," according to the WSJ.
Yahoo had a duty to shareholders to at least hear Microsoft out, now that its list of possible alternatives is down to pretty much zero. AOL is busy with its $850 million acquisition of social networking site Bebo. Rupert Murdoch says News Corp. is staying out. Google lost its initial enthusiasm about thwarting the bid.
It's unclear how serious the meeting was. No bankers attended and no negotiation took place. We don't even know if the CEOs were there. But the official silence has been broken. Yahoo shares fell nearly 3% today to $26.71 on the news, and Microsoft shares are down nearly 2.3% to $27.96.
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