by
12 Comments

A Merger Between Yahoo and AOL?

posted on February 11, 2008

The Times is reporting that Yahoo is attempting to restart merger talks with America Online (AOL) as possible way to avoid a potential hostile take over from Microsoft. It is possible this is one of the alternatives that came from the Yahoo board meeting on Friday, where the board has apparently decided to decline the Microsoft bid. I would expect this is not the only possibility that Yahoo is courting though.

Yahoo and AOL held merger talks in the past but were unable to come to an agreement. It is believed the current situation between Yahoo and Microsoft, the impending financial downturn in the US, and Time Warner’s desire to separate AOL from their core content business could make this second round of talks a more desirable and productive conversation.

by
12 Comments

Alan’s Angle – Should Google Feel Threatened?

posted on February 9, 2008

By Alan Johnson

First of all, I’d like to take advantage of this opportunity and thank all of you for looking into the first guest post of my “Alan’s Angle” series, which will have covering the week’s industry-related highlights as the main focus, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo! will be in the spotlight today.

As usual, when an event of this magnitude occurs, it’s easy to get carried away. Sure, the thought of two important companies teaming up in order to put an end to Google’s reign, in order to make the Web a better place for advertisers, publishers as well as regular users is more than interesting, but aren’t we being just a little bit too optimistic?

by
13 Comments

Yahoo Rejects the Microsoft Offer

posted on February 9, 2008

UPDATE: Yahoo has now officially rejected Microsoft’s offer saying it “substantially undervalues” the company.

The New York Times is reporting that Yahoo’s board of directors plans on declining the $44.6 billion dollar offer from Microsoft. A Yahoo board meeting on Friday apparently covered possible responses to Microsoft’s proposal and at the end of the day it was believed that the offer for Yahoo was below what the board believed the business is worth.

The board also spent time covering options for maintaining Yahoo is a viable entity, including how Yahoo might get Microsoft to increase their bid. Currently it is expected that Yahoo will post an official statement on Monday declining the offer.

by
2 Comments

Pilgrim’s Picks, February 8–Rumor Report

posted on February 8, 2008

Short Picks today, but a lot of fun:

by
18 Comments

Free Advertising or Trademark Infringement?

posted on February 8, 2008

I’ve always thought it ironic that if you use a trademark in a movie or other medium, the owners would sue the pants off of you—but if you approach them in advance to sell “product placement,” they’ll pay you to put it in there.

Jason Schramm, who runs Jason Blogs and (and wants to rank #1 for his surname ;) ), may have this irony shoved down his throat. Another website of his, Kindle Report, is a website devoted to news about the Amazon.com-owned ebook reader, the Kindle. Kindle Reports was also an Amazon affiliate.

Which is how the site came to Amazon’s attention. Yesterday, Amazon emailed Jason to demand the trademark-containing domain:

by
3 Comments

Yahoo Really Does Live! Er, Yahoo! Live Lives

posted on February 8, 2008

Late last month, rumors abounded that Yahoo was launching a “lifecasting” site, Yahoo! Live. And last night, Yahoo indeed welcomed a new arrival to the family as Yahoo Live went live.

Unfortunately, while they did launch last month in closed beta to Yahoo employees, Yahoo Live has already begun experiencing serious problems. Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb reported that while lifecasting the Yahoo Live launch, once more than give people started watching his video stream, they began having serious problems. At the time, the service had only a few hundred participants, but received an influx of visitors from Twitter and suffered a nervous breakdown began malfunctioning.

However, Marshall still had some big positives for the service, which he seemed to like on the whole. Marshall believes that live video is on its way up. Another major plus for the service was that they had the Yahoo Live API ready to launch as well.

by
2 Comments

Pilgrim’s Picks, February 7

posted on February 7, 2008

Wow, doesn’t the world just feel as though it’s been . . . righted? Going a day without Pilgrim’s Picks is like going a day without . . . linky goodness. ;)