BizJournals Portfolio
Jun 30 2008 12:00am EDT

Last Bytes: Yahoo, CBS/CNET, Facebook, more....

-- Yahoo appealed to the S.E.C. to keep its board intact in the face of Carl Icahn's proxy onslaught. Yahoo also accused Microsoft of being "unresponsive" and "inconsistent" in its pursuit of Yahoo. A Microsoft spokesman called the charge "simply revisionist history." [Portfolio.com]

-- CBS finalized its purchase of CNET, installing Quincy Smith to run the newly formed division. CNET employees must be hoping they'll be spared a reprise of Smith's infamous "Christmas Massacre" last year, in which he laid off nearly half of the CBSNews.com team. [CBS]

-- Facebook announced that Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen will join its board, prompting questions about a potential conflict of interest, given that Andreessen runs Ning, a rival social networking site. Facebook addressed neither those issues, nor the idea of how it plans to make enough money to justify the $15 billion valuation implied by Microsoft's $240 billion investment in the company last year. In fact, it's not even clear that Facebook itself thinks it's worth that much. [Portfolio.com]

-- A Wall Street analyst described demand for Apple's new iPhone as "unprecedented," a term which could also aptly describe the hype surrounding the device's release, set for July 11. [Alley Insider]

-by Sam Gustin


Laura Rich is a co-founder of Recessionwire, which provides news, advice, perspective and humor about the recession and the recovery.

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