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1. Genuine Administrator
   ni-limits.com
   February 4th, 2008 at 11:45 pm

   Following-on from this and the six hundred other posts that have been springing-up every five minutes across the popular technology blogs, Webware had an interesting article that claimed to be a copy of the email that Jerry Yang sent to Yahoo employees:

   Since we talked to you this morning, there’s been a lot of media coverage and industry chatter about Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal to acquire yahoo!. we know you’ve been hearing and reading a lot about this. that’s why we wanted to reach out to all of you at the end of the day to emphasize a few things that we hope will give you some more context about this proposal, the process that our board is taking, and what you can expect in the days ahead.

   First, we want to emphasize that absolutely no decisions have been made–and, despite what some people have tried to suggest, there’s certainly no integration process underway. this proposal is just that–a proposal. and it was only made in the last 24 hours. you can be sure the board is going to review it thoughtfully and carefully, and do what’s right for our great company. Microsoft’s proposal is one of many options that we’re evaluating in order to maximize value for our shareholders and employees over the long-term. that’s why we will respond to Microsoft after our board has completed a careful review of all of our strategic alternatives.

   Second, we can’t let any of the noise we’re hearing around this situation distract us from our core mission. it’s critical that we continue to focus on running our business, executing our strategy and delivering value to all of our users, advertisers and publishers.

   Finally, we realize that this may have been a tough day for many of you, especially those on the front lines of our business. we know you have many questions, and we’re committed to making sure you’re as informed as possible as this process moves forward. in the interim, we both want to thank you for your continued energy, focus and determination. we’ll continue to share information with you as we have it and can do so.

   In addition to this, Inside Microsoft have a nice table that lists the different over-lapping interests of Yahoo and Microsoft, which we strongly recommend you have a quick look at.

2. Genuine Administrator
   ni-limits.com
   February 8th, 2008 at 3:10 am

   So sorry to keep harping-on about this, but in all fairness, it is big news, and at least we are only updating the article via comments, as opposed to dumping twenty articles into our RSS feed. However, with that said, two particular articles were of extreme interest. The first one goes back to TechCrunch to get serious:

   Sources have indicated to us that Yahoo has scheduled a special board of directors meeting on Friday to determine, effectively, the fate of the company. After a week of hectic negotiating, it’s clear that no one is going to step in with a competing acquisition offer to what Microsoft put on the table last Friday - $31 per share. Softbank, the last real chance for a competing bid, bowed out today and said they would not be challenging the Microsoft offer.

   There are only two options left. Accept the offer in principal, and try to increase the price with no negotiating leverage at all, or do a deal with Google to outsource search advertising and, likely, search itself. The board, we’ve heard, is basically being told by outside advisers to take the Microsoft deal. But we’ve also heard that a contingent of senior executives at Yahoo, who are willing to do literally anything to thwart a Microsoft takeover, are pushing for the Google deal and will present their case at the meeting.

   Based on our discussions with insiders and analysts this week, it’s fairly clear that the Google deal would, to say the least, not be a good choice for Yahoo in the long run. But Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney gives it a 25% chance of happening anyway, based largely on an emotional response from Yahoo to remain independent at all costs.

   The next article (from Read Write Web) goes completely off-base - but the concept behind YOKIA turned our heads, that’s for sure:

   Forget Microsoft, News Corp. or even Apple. Nokia, the world’s no.1 mobile handset maker, should buy Yahoo. Or so says Information Week’s Stephen Wellman, who puts forward a compelling argument: If Nokia is repositioning itself as a Web services company, to combat falling profit margins on its hardware, then acquiring Yahoo would help to give the company a much needed presence on the desktop (not just mobile), as well as beef up its Web offerings and Internet brand recognition in general.

   “Nokia is now a Web company, not just a handset maker. But, the company acts as if the Web is just mobile and has no desktop component. This isn’t a very smart strategy”, writes Wellman. All of Nokia’s mobile web rivals: Google, Microsoft and, of course, Yahoo all have desktop products.

   As well as gaining a presence on the desktop, a Yahoo acquisition would help Nokia to further develop its range of location-based services (building on its purchase of GPS company Navteq), again to fend off challenges from Google. Ditto mobile advertising. In addition, Yahoo would give Nokia an instant bump in its U.S. brand recognition. Despite claiming a 40% worldwide market share for mobile phones, Nokia doesn’t compete nearly as well in North America.

   Overall, however, a combined Yahoo/Nokia (Yokia!) would provide Google with a formidable competitor in the pending battle for the mobile web. This is, as ex-Microsoftee Robert Scoble likes to point out, the real reason why Microsoft is attempting an aggressive takeover of Yahoo.

   Food for thought…

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