Web Search: Game Over, Google Won

Sam Gustin hates to break it to Jerry Yang and Steve Ballmer, but the internet search wars are over. You lost.When Microsoft made its unsolicited takeover offer for Yahoo earlier this year, many observers, including this one, suggested that a...

Jun 10 2008

MicroYahoogle: Is Wall Street's 'Misery' Over?

Sam Gustin says: So it's over. Or is it?Despite the seeming finality of Yahoo's decision to slam the door on Microsoft and run into the arms of its erstwhile arch-rival Google, some on Wall Street don't believe this saga is...

Jun 13 2008

Google, Yahoo Might Ditch Their Ad Deal

Sam Gustin writes: The controversial Google-Yahoo search ad deal may fall apart, on its own.After meetings with the Justice Department Thursday, both companies are considering walking away from the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal.The deal has been highly...

Oct 31 2008

Yahoo Takes the Offensive in Microsoft Battle

Beleaguered Web giant Yahoo, scrambling to find an alternative to Microsoft's hostile takeover bid, is close to striking a deal allowing its archrival Google to serve ads on its network. The pact, which calls for a limited test at first,...

Apr 09 2008

Microsoft Faces "Uphill Battle" on Yahoo

When Microsoft announced its unsolicited $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo! this morning, antitrust lawyers who have represented various players in the internecine battle for dominance in the software industry took note. The deal, should it happen, will present serious...

Feb 01 2008

$20 Billion for 100 Ad Companies....

Blaise Zerega is stunned. Who knew these ad networks were so valuable? Wow. There were 160 venture capital investments in ad companies from Q1 2007 to Q2 2008, worth more than $2.1 billion. And in same period,  there were 100...

Aug 19 2008

The 10 Dumbest Lies of the Micro-hoo-gle-cahn Saga

Once promising to be the most-scrutinized corporate governance event in history, this Friday's meeting of Yahoo shareholders will now likely unfold in anticlimactic fashion, diffused by the forced-coziness between Carl Icahn and Yahoo's board. (Take our poll and vote on...

Jul 28 2008

Talking of Microsoft, Thinking of Google

At a conference at this weekend to mark the 10th anniversary of the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, a professor held up some red meat. "There is a certain element of deja vu" to the anniversary program because of...

Sep 15 2008

How Google is Like a Hedge Fund

Big stand-alone hedge funds generally did well in 2007; hedge funds owned by investment banks, by contrast, did much worse. I can't help but see an analogy here: Microsoft is bringing Yahoo in-house, to compete with the big stand-alone...

Feb 01 2008

Why Does Google Oppose the Microsoft-Yahoo Deal?

Sam Gustin reckons that Google, for all its protestations, could actually benefit from a Yahoo-Microsoft merger. I'm more likely to take Google at its word, but Sam says that Google is playing a sophisticated game: trying to delay the...

Feb 12 2008

Down the Rabbit Hole with MicroYahooGle

Sam Gustin felt like today's Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing over Yahoo's proposed search partnership with Google was an exercise in virtual reality. It just depends on whose reality you'd like to believe.As expected, Microsoft blasted the proposal, with general counsel...

Jul 15 2008

Ballmer Balks and the Bankers Bawl

For the Blackstone Group, 2008 is shaping up to be the Year of the Failed Deal. Not only is it fighting legal battles over its failed attempt to take Alliance Data Systems private for $6.4 billion, but it saw about...

May 05 2008

Microsoft to Troops: Deal Likely, Don't Talk to Yahoos

A top Microsoft executive sent an internal memo Friday afternoon preparing his troops for the company's proposed takeover of Yahoo — and the tone suggests that the Microsoft brass is confident the deal will happen. The memo was from Kevin...

Feb 22 2008

Yahoo and the Failed M&A Deals

Stephen Grocer has a great post about Yahoo's M&A track record: the companies it did buy and shouldn't have, as well as the companies it didn't buy and should have. In the former camp: the $3 billion acquisition of...

Feb 14 2008

Parsing Yahoo: We Agree With Microsoft, Carl

Unless, that is, Microsoft starts agreeing with Icahn.

May 18 2008

Parsing Microsoft: We've Moved On From Yahoo... To Yahoo

We can't tell you what it is... but it's smaller than a breadbox.

May 18 2008

Bullish on Google — and Yahoo?

Now that Microsoft has left Yahoo twisting in the wind, investors want to know whether to put money into the beleagured Web giant's shares — and the shares of its rival Google. One Wall Street analyst is urging investors to...

May 08 2008

World's Best Brand? It's No Longer the Real Thing

Google has been named the most valuable brand in the world, according to market research firm Milward Brown, which today released its annual BrandZ rankings. The Mountain View, California, money-machine beat Apple (sorry, Steve), General Electric (condolences, Jeff), Microsoft (bummer,...

Apr 21 2008

Last Bytes: Muxtape, Microsoft, Google

- Could Veoh's recent court win point to a possible "safe harbor" solution for Muxtape? [Wired.com]- Microsoft has acquired Greenfield Online, a market research company, for $486 million, but plans to sell off most of it. [PaidContent.org]- Google has struck...

Aug 29 2008

Parsing Microsoft: We Can Do This the Easy Way, or...

Microsoft makes it clear that they still love a good smack-down.

Feb 13 2008

First Bytes: Apple, Microsoft, Google/Yahoo, NBC Universal

- All eyes on Steve Jobs, but he can he cure Apple's summertime blues? [Portfolio.com]- Microsoft, meanwhile, is trying to spoil Apple's announcement with new updates to its Zune line of mobile music players. [Microsoft]- The Department of Justice has...

Sep 09 2008

The Microsoft-Yahoo News and Its Film-Biz Impact

A funny thing happened on my way to querying some analysts on what Jeff Bewkes, as he steps up to the plate replacing Richard Parsons as new CEO of Time Warner, can do with the troubled New Line studio that's...

Feb 01 2008

Parsing Yahoo's Shareholder Letter: Baby, You Know I'd Never Hurt You On Purpose

Nothing has a shorter shelf-life than bad spin.

Jun 26 2008

Google Extends Web Search Lead

Sam Gustin says: And the beat goes on.ComScore released its July Web search engine rankings Thursday, which show Google increasing its lead, while Yahoo and Microsoft are slipping.Google dominated the U.S. Web search market in July with 61.9 percent, up...

Aug 22 2008

Australia: Ahead of the Regulatory Curve

Which country is most ahead of the regulatory curve these days? A couple of recent developments suggest that it might be Australia.

Sep 10 2007

Parsing Yahoo: Vote Early and Often

Yahoo moves to get the proxy snowball rolling.

Jun 10 2008

Google Is Steaming Into an Antitrust Swamp

Is the world's smartest company is about a learn painful lesson that "antitrust" is about much more than just the law?

Sep 24 2008

Parsing Icahn: Let Sarcasm, Irony and Acronyms Rain Down Upon You

You knew it was coming. Once the shareholder complaint was unsealed, an Icahn-o-gram was sure to follow.

Jun 05 2008

Yahoo Gets Vertical Search. Where's Microsoft, Google?

Blaise Zerega still hasn't found what he's looking for.  Yahoo's announcement to offer BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service-- what happened to the Y?), is a better late than never attempt to do something different to compete with Google. Fair...

Jul 10 2008

Google Learns Ways of Washington the Hard Way

When Google and Yahoo announced that Google would serve advertising on underperforming Yahoo keywords in June, the two companies agreed to delay their non-exclusive partnership for three months so the Department of Justice could investigate antitrust implications. But the deadline...

Oct 20 2008