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• Yahoo's stock: Back to pre-Microsoft levels

  Posted Aug 22 2008, 01:37 AM by Charley Blaine
  Filed under: Investing, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo
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  Here's something the top management of Yahoo may wish nobody noticed.

  The stock is now lower than its $19.18 close on Jan. 31, the day before Microsoft launched its $33-a-share, $44.6 billion offer for the Internet company. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)

  Yahoo closed Thursday at $19.11. On Wednesday, it closed at $19.17.

  While Yahoo can say it fought off Microsoft and a potential proxy fight from activist Carl Icahn, the victory has been costly. And not just because the company spent $36 million waging the fight   Read More...

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• A crummy 2 months for stocks

  Posted Feb 29 2008, 03:22 PM by Charley Blaine
  Filed under: Investing, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Intel, stocks
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  How bad have the first two months of 2008 been? Bad. January and February were the worst-ever opening two months for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average wasn't much better.

  The advice investors should take away from the numbers: Be patient for a bottom. Be very patient. The odds that the market will recover completely by year-end aren't great, if only because it will take a long time to solve all the problems facing the banking system and the credit markets.

  (For some perspective, check Barry Ritholtz's blog The Big Picture. Barry also likes to toss in fun cartoons and thoughts about everything from digital cameras to rock music. Also, check Floyd Norris' blog at the New York Times site.)

  The Dow finished the first two months of the year down 7.5%. Since 1928, that's the blue-chip index's 6th-worst opening two months. The worst was 1933, when the index fell 14.3%. The next worst was 2000, when the Dow fell a combined 11.9%.   Read More...

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• Did Microsoft offer $40; should Yahoo have disclosed it?

  Posted Feb 13 2008, 05:04 PM by Charley Blaine
  Filed under: Investing, Microsoft, Yahoo
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  In the wake of Yahoo's rejection of Microsoft's $31-a-share, or $44.6 billion, takeover offer, there's been much speculation  about what price Yahoo might accept from Microsoft. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)

  The figure of $40 a share was mentioned in several news reports last weekend. An Associated Press report cited a source close to Yahoo who said that Microsoft had offered $40 in February 2007.

  Bill Miller, the manager of the Legg Mason Value Trust mutual fund, mentioned it in his quarterly letter to the fund's shareholders, released on Tuesday: "It has been reported that MSFT has been discussing a combination with YHOO for well over a year, and that it had been prepared to pay over $40 per share previously."

  Legg Mason is Yahoo's second-largest shareholder, and Miller believes Microsoft should boost its bid.

  So, at what point does a company have an obligation to report an offer and a dollar figure to its shareholders? And, more important, were Yahoo's shareholders poorly served by the decision not to disclose Microsoft's offer?   Read More...

  Discuss ( 41 comments) 100,227 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• Will one man decide if Microsoft wins Yahoo?

  Posted Feb 11 2008, 08:30 PM by Charley Blaine
  Filed under: Investing, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, stocks
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  Chances are you haven't heard of Gordon Crawford, but my guess is that both Microsoft and Yahoo are paying close attention to whatever he thinks of Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money)

  Crawford is a senior vice president at Capital Research and Management, the nation's largest mutual fund company. For years, he has been one of the world's top players in media investing. He helped Ted Turner sell Turner Broadcasting to Time Warner. Turner and Crawford are still pals; they share a passion for fly fishing.

  And Crawford was one of the people who engineered Steve Case's departure from the board of Time Warner, back in those unhappy days when the media giant was AOL-Time Warner.

  More important for our discussion: Capital Research is Yahoo's largest shareholder with 11.6% of the outstanding shares -- nearly twice as many as Yahoo co-founder David Filo. Capital Research boosted its position in Yahoo by 49.4% in the third quarter and, according to The Wall Street Journal, increased its stake in the fourth quarter.   Read More...

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• Next Forecast: You'll review Markman's '07 predictions

  Posted Jan 04 2008, 11:35 AM by Jon Markman
  Filed under: Investing, Internet, Amazon, News Corp., Yahoo, Trading, Ford
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  Whenever your job is getting you down, just be glad you aren’t a financial journalist who has to make annual predictions that live forever on the web.  Since the advent of MSN Search and Google, there is no hiding my most unfortunate calls in the drawer anymore.  It’s all out there.  So as an addendum to my 2008 forecast, which you can read right here, here’s how my '07 predictions fared.  

  1. Bull market, year 5.  Well, sort of.  I forecast an S&P 500 gain of 13% on 2007.  We got 3.5%.  The Nasdaq 100 did go up 19%, though, so let’s average them out and call it good.
  
  2. Goldilocks lives!  I forecast modestly rising inflation, modest job growth and below-trend U.S. economic growth of 2.6%. This was right on, as annualized growth came to 2.8% in 2007.   Read More...

  Discuss ( 19 comments) 33,805 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this