Valleywag
deals
Posts Tagged “
Deals
”
deals
deals
Chernin and Murdoch protest talks with Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL too much
How badly does News Corp. want to move MySpace out the door? During yesterday's quarterly earnings call with analysts, News Corp. president and COO Pete Chernin and chairman Rupert Murdoch said they haven't discussed a merging properties with Microsoft, AOL or Yahoo in quite some time. Like maybe 14 days. Chernin: "I have not had a conversation with Microsoft or AOL in a couple of weeks." Rupert Murdoch "Nor have I." Silicon Alley Insider doesn't believe the disclaimers, reminding us that at the end of the last quarter, Murdoch denied interest in Yahoo even as he'd ordered a team to make the deal happen.
xobni
Email startup tries to hurry Microsoft-Yahoo merger
Former Yahoo executive Jeff Bonforte, now CEO of Xobni, has come up with possibly the most cynical yet useful product ever launched by a startup. Xobni, whose software tracks and analyzes email usage in Outlook, is rumored to be in acquisition talks with Microsoft. Microsoft is, to its dismay, not in acquisition talks with Yahoo. But Xobni's latest product, TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld reports, bridges Microsoft Outlook, desktop email software widely used in corporations, with Yahoo's Web-based email. "That's the kind of demo that gets deals done," Schonfeld observes. Indeed, it may make Microsoft wonder whether they need to buy Yahoo at all.
deals
Marc Andreessen's hidden hostility to takeovers
Ning founder Marc Andreessen is already on the record about Microsoft's proposed takeover of Yahoo: He thinks it will likely go through, and turn out to be a good deal. It's a remarkably sanguine take for someone who saw Netscape bought and destroyed by AOL. In a thorough analysis for which he dragooned two corporate lawyers, Andreessen elaborates: Yahoo has few defenses, aside from a poison pill, and Microsoft will likely succeed. For all its thoroughness, the analysis is less interesting for what it says about Microsoft-Yahoo than for what it says about Andreessen. More »
deals
Yahoo hopes Google will help it locate missing $1 billion
The industry has long known that Google's search ads are more profitable than Yahoo's. Yahoo put a team of rocket scientists on the problem, only to discover that it's actually harder than rocket science. Now, in extremis, Yahoo is hoping to evade Microsoft by replacing its own ads with Google's. A test has proved successful; analysts say Yahoo could boost its cash flow by $1 billion a year. Now, the problem becomes how to sneak a Yahoo-Google ad deal past antitrust regulators.More »
deals
Yahoo and Google in talks over search ads
Yahoo and Google are in "advanced discussions" over search advertising. The talks, part of Yahoo's search to find an alternative to Microsoft's takeover bid, revolve around a short-term test that would embed Google ads around a "limited percentage" of Yahoo's search results. If it worked out well, a "broader search-ad outsourcing arrangement" could be made.
deals
Is Slide worth half a billion? Only if Facebook buys them
In January a pair of money managers, Fidelity and T. Rowe Price, bought 9.1 percent of Slide for $50 million. Fortune asks, "Are these widgets worth half a billion?" The mag doesn't come up with anything more than "maybe," but I'm willing to go a little further. Slide worth $550 million? No, despite its huge traffic numbers. While it's true that advertisers are desperate to reach the 18-24 market, I hardly think SuperPoke is what they had in mind. More »
10:40 AM on Mon Mar 24 2008
By Jordan Golson
2,126 views,
6 comments
Latest by DaveMcClure500Hats: party @ Alaska's place! woo hoo! more »
found in translation
Natali Del Conte even hotter when she speaks Spanish
Really, we didn't think it was possible, but CNET editor Natali Del Conte is even more adorable en español. The bilingual TV personality is anchoring a deal between CNET and Univision, the Hispanic TV channel. "My Spanish-speaking family is WAY more impressed with this than anything else I've ever done," Del Conte told me. "Univision is all they've got so it's a big deal. My mom called me all weepy after she saw it and went, 'Oh my baby! She's speaking Spanish on TV!' My sister said, 'You would think we don't have English-speaking parents!' :)" 32 million U.S. residents speak Spanish at home. Somehow, I don't think they're tuning in to Michael Arrington for the latest on technology.
deals
Jim Cramer, the Wall Street blowhard, is having trouble coming to terms on a contract with TheStreet.com, the financial site he cofounded. The last one expired at the end of 2007. For now, Cramer has signed his second two-month extension in a row. After April 15, it's up again. If Cramer's outburst during the last market meltdown is any indication, I'm sure talks are proceeding calmly and reasonably. More »
TheStreet.com's having trouble negotiating with Jim Cramer?
Jim Cramer, the Wall Street blowhard, is having trouble coming to terms on a contract with TheStreet.com, the financial site he cofounded. The last one expired at the end of 2007. For now, Cramer has signed his second two-month extension in a row. After April 15, it's up again. If Cramer's outburst during the last market meltdown is any indication, I'm sure talks are proceeding calmly and reasonably. More »
Intel is reviving ClearWire andSprint's failed WiMax partnership with a much-needed $2 billion investment. Intel has always been WiMax's biggest proponent, spending a ton of money on development and including the technology in its next laptop chip design. This is on top of the $5 billion that Sprint has promised to invest in WiMax over the next three years. [Gizmodo]
Microsoft and Netflix may partner to offer movie downloads over Xbox Live. An announcement would likely come tomorrow, at the Game Developer's Conference. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is a member of Microsoft's board of directors. [MSNBC]
BBC and Apple have partnered up to sell BBC programming through the UK iTunes store. [Reuters]
deals
The 7-Eleven deal: Could Yahoo Japan buy Yahoo?
In the Yahoo-Microsoft takeover battle, Yahoo's 40 percent stake in Yahoo Japan is treated as an afterthought: Spare goods to be sold off to boost shareholder returns. But Yahoo Japan, in its home country, is Google, eBay, and Yahoo rolled into one. It's worth $29 billion — more than Yahoo itself was worth before the Microsoft bid. Which raises the question: Why isn't Yahoo Japan the one buying Yahoo? Before you dismiss it, consider the precedents. More »
12:20 PM on Mon Feb 18 2008
By Owen Thomas
6,180 views,
6 comments
brad greenspan
Video startup Revver sells to unpredictable ex-MySpace boss
Last we heard, Revver, the YouTube wannabe which promised a cut of revenues to video creators, was on the ropes. LiveUniverse, the Internet vehicle of former MySpace boss Brad Greenspan, had walked away from a deal, reports had it. That left Revver grasping for a lifeline and willing to sell itself for as little as $1.5 million. Now, NewTeeVee tells us LiveUniverse has bought Revver for less than $5 million. More »
sco
Linux-hating SCO not dead yet
Unix vendor cum software shakedown artists SCO got a $100 million shot in the arm from Stephen Norris Capital Partners. The investment will give SNCP a controlling stake in SCO and allow the company to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and pursue its legal claims against IBM, Novell, and anyone who ever shook Linus Torvalds's hand. [Internetnews.com]
deals
Comcast to Plaxo: "Yeah, I'd sync that" -- for $175 million
We keep hearing Plaxo has signed a deal to sell the company. But is the buyer Google — where engineer Brad Fitzpatrick is buddy-buddy with Plaxo's Joseph Smarr? Or is it Comcast? The latter. Comcast, we're told, has bought Plaxo for $175 million in cash. While Plaxo has tried to reinvent itself as a social network, its still primarily used as an online address book. And that's the appeal to Comcast. More »
the chart
The 15 biggest tech acquisitions since 1998
So Microsoft buying Yahoo for $44.6 billion is a big deal. No, it's a massive deal. Before Microsoft's share price dropped, it was to be the second-largest tech deal made in the past decade after AOL/Time Warner. Even more impressive? Like the AOL deal, this is a merger you can explain to your mom. Most people have never heard of the big tech companies. Hell, I've never heard of some of them. SDL? JDS Uniphase? Veritas? Aspect Development? I have no idea what they do. But you don't need to be a household name to be worth billions. Here are the 15 biggest tech deals since 1998. More »
Rupert Murdoch is interested in blocking the Microsoft-Yahoo deal, the Wall Street Journal confirms. One hitch: News Corp. and Yahoo can't agree over what MySpace is worth. [WSJ]
