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Posts with tag takeover

Filed under: News, Microsoft, Yahoo!

Yahoo! releases statement: Glad that's over

Yahoo! responds to Microsoft

With all the talk of Microsoft's bid for Yahoo! leading nowhere, there's one important thing to keep in mind: Yahoo! never said it was looking for a buyer. Microsoft's takeover offer never quite got "hostile," but it was unsolicted nonetheless. So now that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has decided to take his ball and go home, we probably shouldn't be surprised that Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang released a statement saying "With the distraction of Microsoft's unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies" on other things, you know, like making the company as valuable as Yang and the shareholders told Microsoft it already is.

Kara Swisher at All Things Digital has written an interesting article choc full of information from those close to the negotiations. In a nutshell, she says that Yang was originally holding out for Microsoft to offer $40 a share, which was a good $10 or $11 higher than the value of the offer this week. Ballmer was reportedly willing to go as high as $33, while Yang was willing to come down to $37. But once Yang said that Yahoo! would respond to any proxy fight initiated by Microsoft by expanding its partnership with Google, things seemed to fall apart.

It's not clear whether Yahoo! will continue to seek more deals with companies like Google and AOL now that the Microsoft deal is no more. But this raises an interesting question: were Yang and company protecting their brand and their shareholders, or was this a dumb move from a company that's not as relevant as it once was?

Filed under: News, Microsoft, Yahoo!, AOL

Yahoo! rejects Microsoft, turns to AOL?

Yahoo!As expected, Yahoo! has rejected Microsoft's bid to take over the web portal and its network of services. Microsoft had been offering $44.6 billion for Yahoo!, which the Yahoo! board claims undervalues the company. Microsoft has a few options available. The company could raise its bid price, or it could try to circumvent the board's decision by taking the offer directly to the shareholders.

Meanwhile, Yahoo! is "evaluating all of its strategic options." The rumor du jour is that Yahoo! is in talks with this blog's parent company, AOL. The move makes some sense, as AOL has been remodeling itself in recent years as a company focused on online services and advertising, rather than a dialup and broadband service provider. Yahoo! would bring a lot of expertise to the table, while the two companies would be well positions to compete with the other giants in online software, Google and Microsoft.

Filed under: Internet, News, Web services, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Search

Yahoo may align with Google against Microsoft's takeover proposal

Yahoo and Google?
On Friday, we reported that Microsoft was attempting to acquire Yahoo, offering the company $44.6 billion for the takeover. Google isn't taking the new threat lightly, so Google's CEO Eric Schmidt called Yahoo's CEO Jerry Yang on Sunday. Schmidt offered any help he could in order to prevent the buyout. But it's possible this may be a ploy by Yahoo to get Microsoft to raise the bidding price.

The controversy behind the buyout partially stems from the fear that such a move would destroy Google and all other competitors in the long run. Microsoft used a similar method to get Windows users to use Internet explorer instead of Netscape, but Google's destruction may not be Microsoft's intent. Disagreeing with critics, Microsoft says the takeover would create a solid second-place competitor in the Internet search market.

Though we can't predict the future, it's clear Yahoo won't be alone in the future. The question now is: what will Yahoo's future name be? Yahoogle or Microshoo?

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

View more Time Wasters

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