901am

New Media News Every Morning

Time Warner: Yahoo’s new desperate suitor

By

yahoo.gifYahoo is pulling another desperate stunt hoping to convince Microsoft its initial $41 billion bid. According to WSJ, Jerry Yang’s empire and Time Warner have stepped up talks to provide an alternative to the looming hostile takeover.

The deal involves folding Time Warner’s AOL Internet unit into Yahoo and Time Warner will take a minority share in this combined forces. The said proposal is still in the works according to the mysterious people familiar with the situation.

However, analysts are not impressed with this renewed initiative and the majority believes that Microsoft will likely prevail in the end.

Originally posted on March 5, 2008 @ 9:04 am

Yahoo! opens new lab in Bangalore, India

By

Yahoo! Inc. is expanding its India R&D operations with the opening of Yahoo! labs – Bangalore. Dr. Rajeev Rastogi has been appointed as vice president and head of the new lab.

Yahoo! Labs – Bangalore will be the center for next generation search and advertising technologies. As a demonstration of Yahoo!’s commitment to recruiting world-class talent in India, Rastogi was appointed to assemble a world-class team of scientists and engineers to focus on new approaches to information extraction and machine learning, multimedia and query processing.

Prior to joining Yahoo!, Rastogi was the founding director of Bell Labs India. He was a Bell Labs Fellow and Distinguished Member of its Technical Staff. Currently, he sits on the editorial board of Communications for the Association for Computing Machinery (CACM). Rastogi has published over 125 papers on database systems and information storage and management and holds over 40 patents.

Originally posted on March 4, 2008 @ 10:52 am

Yahoo! Go 3.0 and other mobile widgets now available to European users

By

yahoo-go-3.gifYahoo has taken another step to strengthen its hold in the mobile content segment with the launch of its flagship all-in-one mobile application Yahoo! Go 3.0 to European countries including France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK at the end of Q2 2008.

Currently, Yahoo! Go 3.0 is available to US consumers and compatible with more than 50 mobile devices. Moreover, these European markets will also gain access to localized services from mobile widgets such as eBay, professional networking site XING, MySpace and European football coverage Eurosport. Yahoo! Mobile Widgets will be accessible via devices that support the new Yahoo! Go 3.0 client or the recently redesigned Yahoo! mobile home page, available at http://mobile.yahoo.com.

“Yahoo! Mobile has tremendous momentum in Europe and we are expanding our leadership with innovative offerings and key partnerships. We believe delivering Yahoo! Go 3.0 and exciting widgets that markets demand will help make Yahoo! an even more indispensable starting point for users, as well as grow value for advertisers, publishers and developers across our mobile ecosystem,” said Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo!, in a press release.

Originally posted on March 4, 2008 @ 12:12 pm

Yahoo! launches Buzz

By

Yahoo! is following the footsteps of Digg by launching Yahoo! Buzz. The new service allows users to vote on which stories should appear on the homepage.

ybuzz.png

Originally posted on February 26, 2008 @ 5:30 pm

Microsoft to unleash hell against Yahoo

By

microhooTrue to the form of a desperate suitor, Microsoft is not taking “NO” for an answer. According to the ever mysterious people familiar with this controversy, the software giant has tapped a proxy solicitation group to overthrow Yahoo’s 10-member board.

Clock is ticking for Jerry Yang’s empire with this intimidating hostile takeover. Though analysts speculate Microsoft will up its bid, the cost of proxy battle is relatively cheaper – $20 to $30 million vs. $1.4 billion for every dollar increase in the original bid of $31 per share.

If we use Bill Gate’s confirmation that its bid is full and fair, it seems this proxy battle is the only alternative left. Rumors say it will happen anytime this week. In spite of everything, this might just be a scare tactic to force Yahoo to say “YES” since communication lines between parties are still open.

On Yahoo’s side, Jerry Yang has prepared a new severance package for its executives and full-time employees in the event the hostile takeover will materialize.

Can Yahoo still turn the tables on this one? With no alternative bidder and weak partnership agreements with other players, the hostile takeover seems inevitable. Sit tight and grab your beer for the drama will end soon.

Originally posted on February 21, 2008 @ 1:46 am