Techmeme @ 8:20 AM ET, May 4, 2008

8:20 AM ET, May 4, 2008

Top Items:

Microsoft Withdraws Proposal to Acquire Yahoo! — Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc. — Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) today announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Yahoo!:

Yahoo! Issues Statement in Response to Microsoft — SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 03, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company issued the following statement today in response to Microsoft Corporation's announcement that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo!:

Discussion: TechCrunch, StepForth SEO News Blog, VoIP Blog, Tech Trader Daily, Furrier.org, Forbes, I4U News, LiveSide, Paul Kedrosky's … and Geek Speaker

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

MicroHoo: The Odd Couple Meetings Led Nowhere — After today's events, I guess you could say Yahoo and Microsoft tried, holding a series of meetings about a possible takeover that ended up proving exactly how incompatible the companies were. — Kind of like Oscar Madison and Felix Unger, but not funny in any way at all.

Discussion: Valleywag and Paul Kedrosky's …

DealBook:

Guessing Yahoo's Opening Stock Price — Well, Yahoo seems to have gotten what it wanted. — The company managed to fend off Microsoft's unwanted advances, even after the software giant sweetened its bid by $5 billion — an amount Yahoo felt still wasn't enough.

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Breaking: Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Bid; Walks Away From Deal (Updated) — Microsoft will announce shortly that they have withdrawn their offer to acquire Yahoo. Talks between the two companies and their advisors broke down earlier today, according to a source close to Microsoft …

Discussion: BoomTown, BBC NEWS, CNET News.com, Coop's Corner, Voices, Beyond Binary, Reuters, Valleywag, mathewingram.com/work, LiveSide, SarahLacy.com, Electronista, Business Technology, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, Master of 500 Hats, Thomas Hawk's Digital …, Search Engine Journal and WinExtra

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Yahoo's Nightmare Scenario: I'm From Google and I'm Here to Help! — Here's what a top-notch source at Yahoo joked to me tonight, after Microsoft walked away from its unsolicited takeover bid to acquire the long-troubled Internet giant. — “Google is now officially our best friend.” — Oh no.

Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Offer After Attempt to Bridge Gap in Price — Microsoft Corp. said it abandoned its offer for Yahoo Inc., as the two companies failed to bridge a gap between them on price. — Microsoft Saturday released a letter from Chief Executive Steve Ballmer …

Discussion: Tech Beat and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check

Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News.com:

Report: A peek behind the Yahoo-Microsoft meltdown — Curious how Microsoft's multi-multi-multi-billion dollar buyout bid for Yahoo sputtered, then crashed? — Kara Swisher's BoomTown column in All Things Digital has an interesting account of the missteps, sidesteps …

Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:

OK, so what's Microsoft's plan B? — With Yahoo apparently off the table, it's time to see what Microsoft's back-up plan looks like. — Microsoft has said for some time that it has a strategy with or without Yahoo, but it's a strategy clearly in need of a jump-start.

New York Times:

Microsoft Withdraws Its Bid for Yahoo — Microsoft said Saturday that it was abandoning its blockbuster bid to acquire Yahoo after it raised its offer by $5 billion but Yahoo rejected it as still too low. — The about-face followed a meeting on Saturday morning in Seattle between Microsoft's …

Discussion: CNET News.com, deal architect, Slashdot and Digg

Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:

Microsoft pulls its Yahoo offer — Update 5 p.m. PDT: Microsoft has made its move official. Click here for the story and here for the text of a letter Ballmer sent to Yang. — Microsoft is withdrawing its offer for Yahoo after talks between the two companies broke down on Saturday, a source told CNET News.com.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Email From Steve Ballmer To All Microsoft Employees

Discussion: InsideMicrosoft, VentureBeat and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch: Yahoo's Tough Week Ahead

Yi-Wyn Yen / Fortune:
Blame it on Google — Microsoft CEO Ballmer said the software …

Discussion: MacDailyNews and CNNMoney.com

Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed: Analysis of the Microsoft Decision, Plus Yahoo's Hari-Kari

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
BREAKING: MICROSOFT WALKS

Discussion: Digital Daily, Valleywag, Paul Kedrosky's … and Hollywood Newsroom

Om Malik / GigaOM:
Microsoft To Yahoo: Take a Hike!

Discussion: BoomTown and Changing Way

Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Microsoft says proxy battle not worth it

Discussion: paidContent.org and BloggingStocks

BBC:
Microsoft walks away from Yahoo

Discussion: Gizmodo and TECH.BLORGE.com

Drew Cullen / The Register:
Microsoft walks away from Yahoo!

Discussion: HipMojo.com

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AIR, Java, and Robots — Jordan Snyder turned more than a few heads at 360Flex when she demoed a lego Mindstorm robot controlled through an AIR interface. Adam Flater took some videos of the 'bot (since named “Nathan") cruising around the eBay campus.

Channel 10:

Did You See The New Ad? — While I was watching NBC Football (or rather, I was surfing FriendFeed and my husband was watching football), when, all of a sudden, I looked up to see Bill Gates on the screen!

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The Mighty Guys of Power — More from Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Fall 2008 — This photo makes me smile in a couple of ways: — This is a booth at the Demo Showcase at the most recent IDF …

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