Yahoo!, as expected, lost 15% of its value yesterday with more than 279,000,000 shared traded. Average volume of transaction is only 10% of that. My guess is that with that much buying and selling, their stock is actually going to rise slightly today.
In the mean time Jerry Yang, in an inclusive interview with Reuters, said that he is still open to a deal with Microsoft. According to Yang he was simply “seeking common ground when [Microsoft] abruptly ended deal talks.” and “We were negotiating a way to find common ground and then on Saturday they chose to walk away”.
Speaking for Yahoo’s biggest shareholder (they own 16% of stock), Gordon Crawford, portfolio manager for Capital Research Global Investors said “I am extremely angry at Jerry Yang and at the so-called independent board”.
This all goes to show that the Yahoo/Microsoft negotiations are far from over and we will most likely see daily updates coming in for the rest of the week here.
Microsoft has announced just 30 minutes ago that they have withdrawn their bid for Yahoo. Here is a letter from Steve Ballmer to all Microsoft employees and here is the official press release from from Yahoo’s Chairman Roy Bostock (not Jerry Yang).
I can’t wait to see what is going to happen on Monday when the markets open. We assume that Yahoo’s shares are going to drop significantly which will either bring Microsoft back to the table or even Google.
On Friday Microsoft reportedly upgraded its offer from $33 to something higher. Yahoo made it clear that an offer of anything less than $37 wouldn’t be acceptable.
Yahoo News reports that “Jerry Yang and David Filo, the co-founders of Sunnyvale-based Yahoo, flew to Seattle [on Saturday] morning to meet personally with Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Kevin Johnson, who runs the software maker’s unprofitable online services division”
Everybody anticipated a deal to be announced this Monday based on the news from Microsoft’s new bid and their ongoing negotiations. Seems that things turned out quite different.
UPDATE: Want to know what it was like for David Filo and Jerry Yang to negotiate with Microsoft and have them walk away from the table? Read this great story (from Po Bronson for Wired) about the Hotmail negotiations from December 1998. It gives you great insight in how these kind of deals are negotiated and also shows that walking away from a deal is standard procedure for Microsoft.
Written on April 25, 2008 – 11:57 am David Petherick, Next Web WebTipr United Kingdom
Raymond O’Hare, Director, Microsoft Scotland, spoke to David Petherick for The Next Web about how Microsoft are working to enhance Scotland’s future, following the Herald’s ‘Shaping Scotland’s Digital Future’ Debate in Glasgow.
He touches upon education, politics, common standards, collaborating with competitors, and has a word or two for "those currently in power".
Photograph Caption:
24-April-2008, The Teacher Building, Glasgow
At Lectern: Raymond O’Hare, Regional Director, Microsoft Scotland
Seated, L-R Steven Thurlow, Technical Director, Graham Technology
Gordon Thomson, Operations Director, Cisco Scotland & Ireland
Written on April 14, 2008 – 5:06 pm Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
After the EU fined software giant Microsoft 899 million euro last February, things have been relatively peaceful. But a question by EU Parliament representative and Green Party member Heide Rühle is about to stir things up again. Ars Technica reports that Rühle asked the Parliament whether the EU’s legal findings against the company should prevent Microsoft from taking part in future public procurement discussions:
Rühle’s complaint rests on the fact that Microsoft was convicted in 2004 of “abusing its dominant position in the software market, causing a huge damage both on competitors and consumers.” Redmond appealed that decision, but the Court of First Instance (CFI) rejected the company’s appeal in September, 2007. Microsoft chose not to appeal that ruling, which, according to Rühle, gives the court’s decision res judicata status. The term refers to a situation in which the validity of the court’s findings, and the evidence of Microsoft’s abuse, is considered settled and is no longer contested.
So no more Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations in the EU offices? Will every European diplomat now browse with Firefox? Probably not, as the EU wouldn’t want to get into this ‘trouble’. They’ll find a way to make sure Rühle’s questions will remain rhetorical. The software company should probably just take it as a “effective warning”, says Joel Hruska from Ars Technica.
When EU’s antitrust chief Neelie Kroes fined the - now legendary - 899 million euro, reactions from the other side of the ocean were pretty negative, sometimes even emotional. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington called Microsoft the “EU’s ATM machine” and The New York Times wrote that the fine “might pose problems for companies like Apple, Intel and Qualcomm, whose market dominance in online music downloads, computer chips and mobile phone technology is also being scrutinized by the European Commission.” In their eyes, this question by Rühle might even seem like a provocation. I hope the reassuring words on Ars Technica might ease their minds.
Written on February 28, 2008 – 1:22 pm Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Yesterday TechCrunch reported that LinkedIn would launch its new lay-out today. Mark Hendrickson wrote that ‘these updates feel like an attempt to mimic Facebook’. Well, LinkedIn is not just using Facebook as an inspiration for the design, also some marketing techniques are copied.
You might remember that Bill Gates joined Facebook a while ago, but left as he was overwhelmed with friend requests - around 8,000 per day. It created a good buzz, and that didn’t go unnoticed by LinkedIn.
Because, surprise surprise, the Microsoft Chairman has now asked a question on LinkedIn:
The answer is of course: stay on Facebook and talk with them! Before you go ahead and answer the question, you might want to check out this demo of the new LinkedIn features. Since whether they copy marketing techniques or not, they’re still a good service for professional networking.
Written on February 9, 2008 – 8:22 pm Patrick de Laive, Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of Fleck
A quiet Saturday… nope. The Wall Street Journal just reported that ‘a person familiar with the situation’ says that the board of Yahoo has decided to reject the 44 billion dollar offer from Microsoft because they believe this offer undervalues the company. According to the market Yahoo is worth exactly 40.72 Billion at this moment with their stock trading close to $30.
So what is the value of Yahoo? Is Microsoft going to raise its bid? Is Yahoo just starting to play this game to get more offers from News Corp? I don’t have the answer, but I’ll be watching this weekend.
Written on February 7, 2008 – 8:05 pm Chris Obdam, Internet entrepreneur
Today Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, VeriSign, and Google have joined the OpenID Foundation as board members. The OpenID Foundation board is there to “to help promote, protect and enable the OpenID technologies and community”. OpenID is really exploding in the last couple of months. With Google and Yahoo! becoming official OpenID providers, the OpenID movement has grown to billions of users. Now the Big Five have announced to not only support OpenID as a provider but also actively help to develop the standard furthermore.
Earlier this year OpenID 2.0 has been released. This is a serious landmark in removing the burdon for web users to store loads of password and username combinations. Today there are over a quarter of a billion OpenIDs and well over 10,000 websites to accept them.
In Europe the OpenID Europe Foundation is gathering more and more local OpenID providers to team up. Snorri Giorgetti, founder of the OpenID Europe Foundation, says Europe now contains 17 OpenID providers, varying from France to Estonia. The European Foundation is not directly connected to the OpenID foundation but is there to promote OpenID in the member countries and to support the OpenID consumer websites on a technical level.
Written on February 4, 2008 – 12:07 pm Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
As Scott Karp from Publishing 2.0 stated two days ago, not writing about the bid of Microsoft on Yahoo means losing the ‘media/tech blogger license’. Yet since Boris already wrote an thorough analysis about the possible deal on The Next Web Blog, I prefer to just give you an update on the latest developments.
Google Alliance Yesterday a source familiar with Yahoo’s strategy said that the company is considering a business alliance with Google ‘as a way to rebuff a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft’. Read more on Reuters
Poison Pill
Microsoft may end up disappointed since Yahoo has some defense at its disposal should Microsoft’s bid turn hostile. In 2001 the tech company adopted a poison pill. This is a defense mechanism that makes an offer incredibly expensive by giving shareholders the right to to convert their shares into a large number of common shares. Read more on Yahoo News
Google’s Reaction
This is actually funny, Google is desperately holding on to their ‘do no evil’ credo, even when it comes to.. competition. The pot calls the kettle black. Read more on Google’s blog
Microsoft reacts to Google
Microsoft responded quickly on Google’s accusation. General Counsel Brad Smith said: “The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and on-line advertising.” Read more on TechCrunch
Eleven dreams and nightmares
If one giant tries to take over another giant, everybody starts fantasizing about what this might cause. So does one of America’s largest newspapers.
Read more on The Washington Post
Written on May 6, 2008 – 7:16 am
Yahoo!, as expected, lost 15% of its value yesterday with more than 279,000,000 shared traded. Average volume of transaction is only 10% of that. My guess is that with that much buying and selling, their stock is actually going to rise slightly today.
Written on April 25, 2008 – 11:57 am
Written on April 14, 2008 – 5:06 pm
Written on February 9, 2008 – 8:22 pm
A quiet Saturday… nope. The Wall Street Journal just 
Written on February 7, 2008 – 8:05 pm
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