Yahoo unveiled a new bookmarking tool for cell phones

The Internet company unveiled a new bookmarking tool for cell phones that lets people keep track of favorite Web content--news feeds, search results, Web sites--from one place on their handheld. The technology, called Yahoo OnePlace, will be available in the second quarter of 2008, according to Yahoo.

The tool builds on other new mobile applications from Yahoo. Those include OneConnect, a tool to update social-networking messaging on the phone (announced in February), and OneSearch, which aggregates news, weather, financial data, photos, and Web links based on search queries

Yahoo has heavy competition in mobile. Earlier Tuesday at Germany's annual CeBit conference, Google demonstrated Google Gears, an open-source browser extension for mobile phones that lets developers create Web applications that can run offline. For now, Google Gears supports Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile 5 and 6 phones, but not Apple's iPhone or other smart phones running Opera browsers.

Last month, Opera also switched out Yahoo and made Google the default search engine for its Opera Mobile and Opera Mini Web browsers designed for handheld devices.

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MicroHoo is Unnerving says Sergey Brin

At a recent event, Google co-founder Sergey Brin called Microsoft's bid for Yahoo "unnerving" and said the move imperils innovation on the Internet. Google also posits that the merger would be illegal. Maybe the merger could violate antitrust laws. Or maybe Brin likes being King of the Mountain, and doesn't want anything to threaten that. Oh, and Brin? Innovation will continue with or without MicroHoo.

The remarks came at an event for the Google Lunar X Prize yesterday. In an interview with the Associated Press, Brin said, "The Internet has evolved from open standards, having a diversity of companies. And when you start to have companies that control the operating system, control the browsers, they really tie up the top Web sites, and can be used to manipulate stuff in various ways. I think that's unnerving."

That's pretty much what Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said in a letter published on Google's Web site shortly after Microsoft's takeover bid was announced. He wrote, in part, "This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation."

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Micro-hoo: will that take a place?

Microsoft believes that he's bluffing and plans to pursue this deal through to a conclusion.
In an interview with my colleague Ina Fried on Wednesday, Bill Gates made clear why Microsoft's in love with this grand vision of a future "Micro-hoo."
"We think that the combination with Yahoo would accelerate things in a very exciting way, because they do have great engineers, they have done a lot of great work. So if you combine their work and our work, the speed at which you can innovate and get things done is just dramatically more rapid," Gates said. "So it's really about the people there that want to join in and create a better search, better portal for a very broad set of customers. That's the vision that's behind saying, 'hey, wouldn't this be a great combination?'"

I'm still not convinced that this won't turn into a disaster, with all the messy corporate-culture clashes that always attend mergers--but on a massive scale. Still, Gates and Steve Ballmer believe that they can successfully steer clear of the potholes, and they're willing to put more than $40 billion behind that bet.

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Planned job cuts at Yahoo are expected on Tuesday

Planned job cuts at Yahoo are expected to come on Tuesday, with managers possibly finding out Saturday who is on the list, according to sources inside the company.

The layoffs come as Yahoo executives and board members discuss Microsoft's bid for the company. So far, Yahoo has not acted on the offer. Chief Executive Jerry Yang has told staffers that executives would take their time evaluating the proposal. However, Microsoft's share price has dropped since the offer was made a week ago, lowering the value of the deal from $44.6 billion to about $41.8 billion.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo directors on Friday discussed taking Google up on a reported search advertising outsourcing pact to thwart the Microsoft bid or figuring out how to get Microsoft to sweeten the bid. The next scheduled meeting is Wednesday.

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Microsoft may borrow money for the first time in its history to buy yahoo

Microsoft said, it may borrow money for the first time in its history to fund a portion of its $44.6 billion unsolicited offer for Yahoo.

Microsoft also said it expects Yahoo's board to agree to the proposed deal quickly, but Yahoo said over the weekend that it expects to take "quite a bit of time " to weigh all of its strategic options including remaining independent.

A source familiar with Yahoo's strategy said it is considering a business alliance with Google to fend off Microsoft's offer.

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said the software company may issue some debt to finance the cash portion of its 50-50 stock and cash offer for Yahoo, instead of drawing down its entire $21 billion cash pile.

"It's likely we're actually going to borrow for the first time," Liddell said in an annual strategy meeting with analysts. "It's going to be a mixture of the cash we have on hand plus debt."

Liddell declined to say whether Microsoft was already buying Yahoo stock on the open market. He also did not give any information on what form of debt Microsoft will seek in the capital markets.

Microsoft made public on Friday its offer to pay Yahoo shareholders either $31 in cash or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock. The deal aims to create a formidable No. 2 to challenge Google's dominance in Web search and digital advertising.

Analysts applauded Microsoft's decision to take on debt.

"Microsoft can probably get a lower price of debt than equity," said Kim Caughey, senior analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group. "I've often wondered why Microsoft sits on the pile of cash. It doesn't make a lot of financial sense."

Liddell, when asked why Microsoft chose to dilute its stock instead of making an all-cash offer, said analysts need to keep the offer in perspective with the $31 billion that Microsoft spent in share buybacks and dividends in fiscal 2007.


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Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo mean?

If You’ve got a Yahoo e-mail account, and your best friend uses MSN.You use Yahoo Messenger and she uses MSN Messenger for instant messaging.When it comes to search, you both use both Google, and sometimes Yahoo and MSN.
So, what could Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo mean in all these areas if the software giant acquires the Internet company?

Keeping an e-mail address is probably the biggest issue for most consumers, and one that is likely to be left as is for awhile, with each brand staying in place, said Allen Weiner, research director for Gartner, Inc. market research.

“The issue is, particularly as Microsoft has moved people in their e-mail business around, from Hotmail (which Microsoft bought in 1998) to Live Mail, and created some confusion around that, they certainly don’t want to basically say, ‘We’re all going to move you now to Yahoo mail,’ ” he said.

“The question is, how do they keep those brands in place, where appropriate, and then, where appropriate, do they bring those brands together?”

David Smith, lead Microsoft analyst for Gartner, said if Microsoft acquires Yahoo, there likely “would be ways to provide interoperability, to provide support, so that people don’t have to change” their e-mail addresses.

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Microsoft has made a bid of $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo

Seeking to reshape the online landscape andwith a single bold stroke, Microsoft has made a US$44.6 billion unsolicited bid to buy struggling portal Yahoo create a serious challenger to Google.
The offer -- shareholders can choose either cash or the equivalent amount of Microsoft stock -- valued Yahoo at $31 per share, a 62 percent premium over the stock's closing price on Thursday. Yahoo shares surged 44 percent higher in Friday morning action to $27.75. Microsoft shares were down more than 6 percent to $30.52.



The surprise bid may be a sign of how eager Microsoft is to match up with Google. If it lands Yahoo, Microsoft would instantly gain a sprawling Web empire that draws hundreds of millions of users from around the world as well as partnerships with advertisers. There would also be significant overlap: Both Microsoft and Yahoo offer Web mail, instant messaging, search engines and other Web services.

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