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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
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
Feb 27 2008, 10:52 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
"I think it's a mistake. But I think Napoleon said never interrupt your enemy when they're in the middle of making a mistake." -- AOL chief exec Randy Falco on Microsoft's bid to acquire Yahoo in order to compete with Google.
More interesting quotes from the usually reserved Falco in this AdAge.com article.
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Posted
Feb 11 2008, 12:09 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Yahoo's board met Friday to discuss and then reject Microsoft's cash-and-stock acquisition offer. And why wouldn't they? Consider:
--Microsoft offered a 50/50 combination of cash ($31 a share) and stock
--Microsoft shares closed at $28.56 Friday. That means Microsoft would pay $27.16 in stock for each Yahoo share.
--Under the 50/50 scenario, that put Microsoft's bid at $29.08 a share. But Yahoo shares closed at $29.20 on Friday.
So it's no wonder that Yahoo would dismiss the offer as too low. And the Street seems to agree, because today Yahoo shares have climbed to $30. That shows investors are hoping for a better deal. As the New York Times points out, Yahoo shares would sink if investors truly believed Yahoo was going to ignore all offers and go it alone.
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Posted
Feb 05 2008, 02:59 PM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
A look at News Corp earnings shows that the "other" revenue and profit line, which is mostly its online service MySpace, only had an operating profit of $23 million. MySpace is one of the largest websites in the world. That can't be good for the value of social networks. So far, there is not a lot of evidence that the universe's largest video-sharing site, YouTube, is bringing in much money for Google.
According to The Wall Street Journal, an "issue is advertiser comfort with having their ads displayed alongside less-predictable content."
Predictability is not the entire problem. Social networks and video-sharing sites are a maze of unrelated content of questionable quality. Sites like MySpace have a large portion of their members who are weirdos and agoraphobics. Advertisers who spend any times on these sites know that.
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Posted
Oct 15 2007, 11:23 AM
by
Kim Peterson
It's been a long time since AOL was considered a serious competitor to Microsoft or Yahoo. The company has never been a threat to Google. I would say today's announcement of 2,000 staff cuts marks the end of an era, but I think that already happened.
Paring 2,000 from a workforce of 10,000 is significant, but it isn't enough. According to a staff memo by CEO Randy Falco, the layoffs will help the company continue its massive push into online advertising. AOL changed its strategy in August 2006 to focus on advertising and move away from the subscription Internet access business. The company has been slashing jobs since 2001, when it had 18,000 employees.
Certainly the cuts were necessary. In August, Time Warner pulled back its ad growth forecasts for the year. Its Q2 ad sales grew by only 16%, down from 40% for four previous quarters. And on the Internet access side, AOL lost 1.1 million paying subscribers. A lot of lines are trending down at AOL, and a massive layoff will help reverse that
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