bloggingbuyouts

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer Tuesday evening didn't say a whole lot about his company's pursuit of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), but he did reemphasize the critical role online advertising played in the attempted takeover.

Ballmer, speaking at the AeA Technology for Government dinner in Washington Tuesday, said the "fundamental driver" behind the company's pursuit of the search giant was the need to "accelerate our moves to get scale in online advertising." In a speech geared toward the 700 or so government contractors, representatives and IT professionals in the audience, Ballmer more broadly laid out how far technology has come and where he sees it going. The online advertising market, he said, will likely get "turned on its head" in the next 10 years.

The speech was closed to press questions, but the latest reports have Microsoft and Yahoo! back in negotiations on a deal after Microsoft yanked its $44.6 billion bid in May, and the two are talking about some sort of combination short of an outright acquisition.

Continue reading at TechConfidential.com.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer isn't providing much in the way of new information behind the high stakes game of Deal or No Deal being played with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Appearing at The Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital conference on Tuesday, Ballmer said the company was in talks "about other things with Yahoo!" after its efforts to acquire the company failed. He also said the software maker is not "re-bidding" for the company, while noting that "we reserve the right to do so." In other words, everything is still on the table.

Ballmer can afford to play coy as the pressure remains on Yahoo! to come up with alternative to an outright purchase of the company and to pacify angry shareholders. Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang and president Susan Decker are scheduled to appear at the conference today and will have to defend their actions throughout the Microsoft saga. But expect them to be just as coy about the status of negotiations with Microsoft.

Continue reading at TechConfidential.com.

Yahoo! Inc.'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) move to delay its annual shareholder meeting from July 3 to a still undetermined date later that month could not only buy it some time against activist investor Carl Icahn, who wants to oust the company's existing board, but may leave Icahn in a costly bind.

TechTicker reported Friday that Icahn could face losses of "hundreds of millions, if not billions" if his 49 million share option position in Yahoo! expired before the shareholder meeting (Icahn hasn't disclosed when his options are due to expire). Icahn, who has criticized Yahoo! for rejecting Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) $47.5 billion takeover bid, is trying to nominate his own slate of directors to Yahoo!'s board. As expected, Yahoo! announced Thursday afternoon the nomination of nine of its 10 existing board members for re-election. The company said its 10th board member Edward Kozel had been planning to leave since early in the year but stayed on to see the company through the Microsoft talks.

While Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang remains under pressure to restore the value lost after the talks with Microsoft broke down, Microsoft now also finds itself in a potentially awkward position, following comments by CEO Steve Ballmer in Moscow. Ballmer was quoted as saying, rather inexplicably, "Yahoo! was never the strategy we were pursuing, it was a way to accelerate our online advertising business."

Continue reading at TechConfidential.com.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) Chief Executive Jerry Yang is bound to cry "uncle" sooner rather than later.

Pressure is mounting on the co-founder of the internet portal to do something -- anything -- to boost Yahoo's moribund share price. Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn is leading a mutiny among shareholders disappointed that the company couldn't figure out a way to reach an agreement on a deal with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). Display advertising is coming under pressure as advertisers shift spending to search or demand steep rate cuts. Board member Edward Kozel today announced his resignation, another indication of management's growing isolation.

Yahoo management is clearly hunkering down. Today, comes word that the company is delaying its annual meeting from July 3 to the end of July. Is that enough time to reach an agreement with Microsoft or a search deal with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)? Who knows? But you can bet that the meeting will not occur until there is some "good news" to report.

Meanwhile, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told a technology conference in Moscow that the Yahoo acquisition was not "strategic." Hmm, then why bother doing it? Clearly, Ballmer is posturing to get a better deal with Yahoo. Having Icahn on his side certainly helps.

As for Icahn's threatened proxy fight, the key word here is "threat." The last thing that Icahn wants to do is actually run a company. Operations just aren't his thing. But as he showed with Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI), Icahn is not afraid to wage proxy contests and win them. In Blockbuster's case, he trounced management. Whether that's a Pyrrhic victory remains to be seen. Shares of Blockbuster have tumbled more than 22% this year and investors are skeptical that buying Circuit City Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: CC) will boost the video-rental firm's lagging fortunes.

So,Yahoo shareholders should hope that Yahoo figures out a way to make Icahn and his allies happy before things get much worse.

By now you'd figure there would be some clarity about how the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) - Microsoft (NASDAQ::MSFT) saga is going to play out. After all, it's been more than three months since Yahoo! first said "thanks but no thanks" to Microsoft and its $31 a share, or $44.6 billion, acquisition offer. But noooo, and each day it seems there's another piece of information that must be dissected and analyzed.

Today's tidbit of news comes from Israel, where Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told reporters the company is not looking to acquire all of Yahoo!, but instead is "trying to have discussions about deals with Yahoo! that might create value...." It's not a whole lot different than what Microsoft disclosed on Sunday, though it does give more ammunition to those who believe the software maker is no longer interested in pursuing an outright acquisition with Yahoo! at the moment.

Adding to the uncertainty is that Yahoo! continues to talk about alternative deals with everyone from AOL to MySpace to rival Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Meanwhile, corporate rabble rouser Carl Icahn is busy lining up shareholders to oust Yahoo! board of directors, though it appears as though Icahn will have difficulty getting rank-and-file shareholders on board if they don't have a reason to believe Microsoft wants to come back to the bargaining table and revive acquisition talks.

Continue reading at TechConfidential.com.

The deadline Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) imposed on Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) to come to terms on an acquisition before it moved into hostile takeover mode has come and gone, but now it appears the software maker may be taking a softer line.

Or maybe not. The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that the boards of both companies met Wednesday in an attempt to reach an agreement on Microsoft raising its bid in lieu of going hostile.

At the same time, the Journal also reported that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and its financial advisers had been lobbying Yahoo! shareholders to rally support for the company to accept a lower price.

Continue reading at TechConfidential.com.

The Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) proposed acquisition of Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) may be taking a new twist.

The talk is now all over after-hours that Microsoft may be reevaluating its buyout offer for the troubled search and online media operator. This can be interpreted as a threat to walk away or it can be interpreted as a threat to lower the bid.

The companies did meet earlier this week, but to no avail. There are media reports on this on CNBC and on Dow Jones but one should still consider this one hearsay if it was evidence being presented in a court.

Or it may just be a negotiating tool to show Jerry Yang that he's up the creek with no paddle if Microsoft just quits its offer. Jerry Yang better be considering how this will affect his position not just Yahoo! for now. Shareholders may revolt here, and understandable so. There will be more data over the weekend, and some of it may actually be based on fact rather than hearsay.

See the Full Story from 247Wallst.com.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is for now content to stand pat on its $42 billion offer for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO). Speaking at the CEBIT trade show in Germany, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Monday said the deal "makes sense with the price and structure that we announced, and we hope that over time that becomes a reality, and we're working toward that."

The executive also said there's been a "range of dialogue" and "range of alternatives" being considered, but would not go into any detail. Ballmer also wouldn't discuss whether Microsoft plans to nominate candidates for Yahoo!'s board of directors in a move to seize control of the company, as has widely been speculated. It would need to file regulatory papers for a proxy fight before March 14.

Continue reading at TechConfidential.com.