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:
Salon, The Web Services Report, GigaOM, Telegraph Blogs, Hardware 2.0, CNET News.com, IP Democracy, Deal Journal, Search Engine Journal, WebProNews, Forrester's Marketing Blog, Techlog, The Technology Chronicles, San Francisco Chronicle, ClickZ, Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog, Epicenter, All about Microsoft, Insider Chatter, ReadWriteWeb, SEO and Tech Daily, NewTeeVee, Todd Watson, InsideMicrosoft, Paul Kedrosky's …, michael parekh on IT, Collaborative Thinking, CenterNetworks, RyanSpoon.com, Tech Confidential, Web X.0, Rev2.org, HipMojo.com, Seeking Alpha, mathewingram.com/work, DealBook, franticindustries, Searchviews, Yahoo! Finance, Tech Tracks, SearchRank Blog, /Message and Network World
RELATED:
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 …
Discussion:
Microsoft Watch, Big Tech, The Digital Home, AppScout, eWeek, Associated Press, WebbyOnline and Bubblegeneration Strategy Lab
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:
eWeek
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.
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 …
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 …
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.
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.
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 …
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 …
Long Zheng / istartedsomething:
Microsoft + Yahoo = Big Mess? — Everyone on the sideline seems to be very excited about possible Yahoo and Microsoft merger, but I'm not so sure it's going to turn out pretty. Microsoft has a history of making acquisitions, and few comes to mind of anywhere close to a success.
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.
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Microsoft to buy Yahoo: Ray Ozzie roars — OK, everyone is already talking about Microsoft buying Yahoo. — But what I find interesting is that Bill Gates is out and now Ray Ozzie is roaring. Microsoft has been so damn boring since I left in June of 2006. This shoots the boring in the head.
Fred / A VC:You Had To See This Coming - MSFT To Buy YHOO
Discussion:
HipMojo.com, Business Technology, Feld Thoughts, Wall Street Journal and Jeffrey McManus
Bill Tancer / Hitwise Intelligence:Microsoft and Yahoo!: Putting the Offer in Perspective
Discussion:
Between the Lines
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:Ballmer's Internal E-Mail to The Troops Explaining the Yahoo Acquisition
Discussion:
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:Ballmer To Microsoft Troops: Listen Up, Too
Discussion:
Valleywag
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.
RELATED:
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.
Discussion:
WebProNews, ReadWriteWeb, Search Engine Land, Google Blogoscoped, O'Reilly Radar, GigaOM, this is sippey.typepad.com, Scobleizer and Ajaxian
Dan Farber / Between the Lines:Google unleashes Social Graph API-indexes people connections
Discussion:
bytes|genes
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Why Does the Wall Street Journal Hate the Web? — Ever since the rear-guard at the Wall Street Journal won the battle to keep its news pages behind its subscription wall (although, its opinion pages are now free), they have been cracking down especially hard on anyone trying to breach that wall …
RELATED:
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.
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 …
