Silicon Alley Insider - Henry Blodget | October 16, 2008 1:04 PM

*UPDATE: An hour later, Microsoft corporate is frantically backtracking:

“Our position hasn’t changed. Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo; there are no discussions between the companies.”

When we followed up on this, a Microsoft source explained that Steve made the “deal still makes sense” remark while deep in a discussion with Gartner Group analysts (”Response to a question opened up some questions.”) Our take, therefore, is that Steve Ballmer just inadvertently revealed HIS OWN attitude toward a Yahoo deal, not Microsoft’s official one. But given that Steve is Microsoft’s CEO, it’s his own attitude that matters.

Read the rest of this entry »

Technology August 1, 2008, 8:42PM EST

The annual gathering featured familiar themes, from hopeful strategies to unhappy shareholders, amid little Microsoft fallout

by Robert D. Hof

It’s almost as if the past six months never happened.

Yahoo’s (YHOO) much anticipated annual meeting on Aug. 1 left its current board and co-founder and Chief Executive Jerry Yang intact, in control, and still insisting they can return to contention with runaway rival Google (GOOG). Despite rampant shareholder anger that the Internet icon couldn’t close any of a series of deals with Microsoft (MSFT) since the software giant’s unsolicited $45 billion buyout bid Feb. 1, the long-delayed annual meeting was remarkable mostly for how little happened.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sillicon Alley Insider - Michael Learmonth | July 31, 2008 4:05 PM

He’s about to become a Yahoo (YHOO) board member. He owns 5% of the company. Yet Carl Icahn, who led a proxy fight to replace Yahoo board and management, won’t be attending the annual shareholder meeting tomorrow. Why? In a blog post, he says “it will not do shareholders or Yahoo any good to have the annual meeting turn into a media event for no purpose.”

Please. Since when has Carl shied away from media events?

Read the rest of this entry »

Sillicon Alley Insider - Dan Frommer | July 28, 2008 2:11 PM

Now that Yahoo has settled with Carl Icahn, there’s no proxy battle drama left for Friday’s annual meeting. But that doesn’t mean everyone’s back to being friends again: Gordon Crawford of Capital Research and Management — Yahoo’s second-largest shareholder — is still angry at Yahoo (YHOO) Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang — and might not vote for them Friday, the New York Post reports: Read the rest of this entry »

BUSINESSWEEK - Technology July 23, 2008, 12:01AM EST

To justify repelling Microsoft’s bid, the Web portal must show investors it can pump up growth and generate revenue from its search business

by Catherine Holahan

Yahoo!’s second-quarter financial results did little to bolster the case for why the company should remain independent. Executives of the widely used Internet portal reported July on 22 that profits fell 19%, to $131 million, in the three months ended in June, in large part because of spending cutbacks by online marketers in the face of a weakening U.S. economy. “We continue to see softness in finance, travel, and retail [advertising]—all areas impacted by recent economic events,” Yahoo (YHOO) CFO Blake Jorgenson said during a conference call explaining the results.

Read the rest of this entry »

Silicon Alley Insider - Dan Frommer | July 17, 2008 5:50 PM

How is Yahoo (YHOO) positioning itself for the future? What’s wrong with Icahn’s board slate and restructuring proposal? Was Microsoft really committed to a whole acquisition of Yahoo? Everything you wanted to know about Yahoo (and more) in this handy PowerPoint, filed with the SEC today.
Read the rest of this entry »

Silicon Alley Insider - Henry Blodget | July 14, 2008 6:43 PM

A source close to Yahoo, a source close to Microsoft, and Carl Icahn disagree about a critical part of the search proposal that Yahoo rejected over the weekend: whether or not it required that Carl Icahn be given control of Yahoo.

This is important because this condition was an obvious deal-killer. Absent such a condition, Microsoft’s new search proposal is actually reasonable (or at least worth serious consideration).

The source close to Yahoo says: Read the rest of this entry »