Posted 11/30/08 at 09:20:39 PM by Justin Kerr

Microsoft and its Windows Live brand has tried everything, right down to paying users to pry market share from search juggernaut Google, but so far nothing has worked. Popular rumors have even began speculating that the Redmond based software giant may be attempting to rebrand its search service. If this turns out to be true however, will Kumo or Yahoo Live be the new brand surging out of the gate? According to The Times of London, Microsoft is in talks again with Yahoo to acquire its search business for an estimated $20 billion dollars. AOL CEO Johnathan Miller and former Fox Interactive President Ross Levinsohn are reportedly heading up the negotiations.

So far Microsoft has declined to comment on the article and certainly, there is no guarantee that even if talks are in progress, that any agreement could be reached. Presumably however, the fact that Yahoo stockholders are faced with a share price of $11.51, down from a 52 week high of $30.25 might have put them in a slightly more agreeable mood. And now that Google has backed off and Jerry Yang is stepping down as CEO, who knows what the future holds. Steve Ballmer in the past has described the prospect of a search partnership with Yahoo as “an interesting possibility” but again, it’s too early to speculate on the outcome.

Will Yahoo search really benefit Microsoft? Hit the jump and let us know what you think.

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microsoft, Software, Google, Yahoo, search, Live Search, deal

Posted 11/07/08 at 02:57:26 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Harvard has fallen out with Google over the company’s recent announcement that it has reached an out-of-court settlement worth $125 million with authors and publishers. In view of the possible consequences of the settlement, Harvard has revoked its permission to Google to scan its in-copyright material for the Google Book Search service.

Harvard believes that the settlement will lend a commercial shade to the Google Book Search service and that “the settlement contains too many potential limitations on access to and use of the books by members of the higher-education community and by patrons of public libraries.” However, Google can blithely continue to scan Harvard’s out-of-copyright material.

Although the $25 million settlement is yet to be ratified by a judge, the Author’s Guild delightfully labeled it the "the biggest book deal in U.S. publishing history." The deal has opened the floodgates for millions of extra titles to be part of Google Book Search. Users will have the option of purchasing a book – the revenue will be split between Google, the publisher and the author – after previewing it; the service will allow them to preview 20 percent of the pages.

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Software, Internet, Preview, books, search, deal, Google book search, harvard, settlement, scans, fee

Posted 10/16/08 at 06:24:30 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer touched upon virtually all the major issues concerning MS – from Windows 7 to Yahoo - at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Orlando. Unsurprisingly, he was confronted by many questions regarding Vista and Windows 7.He ardently defended Windows Vista. “The adoption rate of Vista is two times faster than XP at two years in,” Ballmer said in Vista’s defense.

However, he tacitly gave the thumbs up to enterprises that have abandoned all plans of upgrading to Vista and are already waiting for Windows 7.  Regarding the possibility of a deal with Yahoo, he said that a deal would make sense for the shareholders of both the companies. The price of Yahoo’s shares shot up by 17% after Ballmer’s comment.

Ballmer believes that Google Apps has “very primitive” capabilities. He further derided Google Apps by not even acknowledging it as serious competition.

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vista, windows, Yahoo, deal, steve ballmer, stockholders, gartner, enterprises, google apps, gartner ITxpo, share

Posted 10/03/08 at 06:29:30 PM by Pulkit Chandna

At first glance, Bankaholic.com appears to be an ordinary blog that betrays not even the slightest hint of its true worth. The Wordpress-based blog has been just bought by Bankrate, a financial information and service website, for an unbelievable amount of $15 million. Its solitary employee John Wu is going to stay aboard for a while.

Although the blog is not insanely popular, it ranks well on search engines for several high-paying keywords. This acquisition will ensure that there is no dearth of get-rich-from-blogging literature that is strewn across the internet.

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blog, deal, sale, john wu, sold, acquired, bankaholic, bankrate

Posted 08/16/08 at 08:09:01 PM by Justin Kerr

What would you do with a multi billion dollar war chest? Well if your Microsoft, you try and buy up the largest search engine you can afford. But ever since Microsoft failed to convince the stubborn Jerry Yang to sell Yahoo, investors have been scratching their heads wondering, what will Microsoft do with all that money? A potential answer emerged last week in the San Francisco Chronicle with the news that Microsoft may spend as much as $20 billion to buy back its own shares within the next three months. Analysts believe this to be in response to its lagging share price which went from a 52 week high of $37.50 to as low as $24.87 by shareholders who worried Microsoft was overpaying for Yahoo. Investors may also be concerned that if buying Yahoo was plan a, plan b is something they should genuinely be worried about. Buying back shares should help push Microsoft’s stock price back up, and buy a bit of good will with shareholders. Tim Allen, analyst and portfolio manager at Wentworth, Hauser and Violich expressed relief that Microsoft was “not going to do something crazy”. The hope is that by reducing the number of shares in the market, earnings per share will increase and stock value will climb as a result. This doesn’t always happen, but is a pretty safe bet with a company like Microsoft that has a steady income stream. Microsoft shares closed down on Friday at $27.81.

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microsoft, Yahoo, deal, acquisition, stockholders, board

Posted 08/09/08 at 07:35:50 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Yahoo’s search ads deal with Google might have come as a shock to most but it elicited a different emotion among legislators, that of suspicion. Yahoo has made its 50 page agreement with Google public amid all the talk of it being anti-competitive. It filed the document with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a supplement along with its quarterly report card. But certain parts of the agreement are not available to the public and have been made available to SEC separately.

The prospects of an antitrust lawsuit still loom over the search ads deal, which capped Yahoo’s brazen defiance towards Microsoft. However, don’t mistakenly assume that the SEC is probing the matter. The probe into the legality of the agreement is being carried by U.S. Department of Justice and various states.

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Software, Google, Yahoo, deal, web, search ads, agreement

Posted 07/28/08 at 07:35:57 AM by Chris Moody

Early last week Google was all set to snap up Digg, with intent papers signed and they were well into the due diligence stage of the deal where Google would have been looking into Diggs, financials and technology. It seems Google caught a whiff of something it didn’t like and late Thursday or Friday and walked away from the deal.

TechCrunch.com says two unnamed sources close to the deal “suggested that some issue that came up during technical due diligence was to blame”. Another source said that the problem was “personality driven”, and Google decided, “that there just wasn’t a fit”. The deal appears dead, and Digg has been left at the altar.

Always a bride’s maid and never a bride, what’s a social content website to do? Push for more financing of course! Allen & Co was hired to represent them in the sale, but it seems that the investment bank is just as good at closing massive venture financings as well.

This is sure to be a relief for some Digg users who were concerned what a large corporate overlord would have meant for the company.Do you think Google would have done more harm than good?

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Google, deal, Buyout, Dig

Posted 07/24/08 at 07:57:04 AM by Chris Moody

It looks like Google may be in final negotiations to acquire Digg for somewhere in the $200 million range. TechCrunch.com reports that negotiations that have been on and off again, have been moving along for the last six weeks. A letter of intent has been signed and a deal is close that will bring Digg under Google News.

As close as a deal is with Google, it could still not come to fruition. Microsoft has previously expressed interest in Digg and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a pending Google deal to stir Microsoft’s interest in Digg again. It seems most of Digg’s revenue comes from a three year ad deal with Microsoft.

The big fish are gobbling up the little fish, but will Microsoft want a nibble too?

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microsoft, Google, digg, deal, Acquire