6th May 2008 9:09 am Yahoo

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO).

“We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo! and the market as a whole. Our goal in pursuing a combination with Yahoo! was to provide greater choice and innovation in the marketplace and create real value for our respective stockholders and employees,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft.

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer.

After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” said Ballmer.

“We have a talented team in place and a compelling plan to grow our business through innovative new services and strategic transactions with other business partners. While Yahoo! would have accelerated our strategy, I am confident that we can continue to move forward toward our goals,” Ballmer said.

“We are investing heavily in new tools and Web experiences, we have dramatically improved our search performance and advertiser satisfaction, and we will continue to build our scale through organic growth and partnerships,” said Kevin Johnson, Microsoft president for platforms and services.

Below is the text of the letter from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang.
May 3, 2008

Mr. Jerry Yang
CEO and Chief Yahoo
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Dear Jerry:
After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!.

I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo!’s Board of Directors for your consideration of our proposal. I appreciate the time and attention all of you have given to this matter, and I especially appreciate the time that you have invested personally. I feel that our discussions this week have been particularly useful, providing me for the first time with real clarity on what is and is not possible.

I am disappointed that Yahoo! has not moved towards accepting our offer. I first called you with our offer on January 31 because I believed that a combination of our two companies would have created real value for our respective shareholders and would have provided consumers, publishers, and advertisers with greater innovation and choice in the marketplace. Our
decision to offer a 62 percent premium at that time reflected the strength of these convictions.

In our conversations this week, we conveyed our willingness to raise our offer to $33.00 per share, reflecting again our belief in this collective opportunity. This increase would have added approximately another $5 billion of value to your shareholders, compared to the current value of our initial offer. It also would have reflected a premium of over
70 percent compared to the price at which your stock closed on January 31.

Yet it has proven insufficient, as your final position insisted on Microsoft paying yet another $5 billion or more, or at least another $4 per share above our $33.00 offer.

Also, after giving this week’s conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps
that would make Yahoo! undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.

We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a “hostile” bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo! today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us for a number
of reasons:

– First, it would fundamentally undermine Yahoo!’s own strategy and long-term viability by encouraging advertisers to use Google as opposed to your Panama paid search system.  This would also fragment your search advertising and display advertising strategies and the ecosystem surrounding them.  This would undermine the reliance on your display
advertising business to fuel future growth.

– Given this, it would impair Yahoo’s ability to retain the talented engineers working on advertising systems that are important to our interest in a combination of our companies.

– In addition, it would raise a host of regulatory and legal problems that no acquirer, including Microsoft, would want to inherit.  Among other things, this would consolidate market share with the already-dominant paid search provider in a manner that would reduce competition and choice in the marketplace.

– This would also effectively enable Google to set the prices for key search terms on both their and your search platforms and, in the process, raise prices charged to advertisers on Yahoo.  In addition to whatever resulting legal problems, this seems unwise from a business perspective unless in fact one simply wishes to use this as a vehicle
to exit the paid search business in favor of Google.

– It could foreclose any chance of a combination with any other search provider that is not already relying on Google’s search services.

Accordingly, your apparent plan to pursue such an arrangement in the event of a proxy contest or exchange offer leads me to the firm decision not to pursue such a path. Instead, I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft’s proposal to acquire Yahoo!.

We will move forward and will continue to innovate and grow our business at Microsoft with the talented team we have in place and potentially through strategic transactions with other business partners.

I still believe even today that our offer remains the only alternative put forward that provides your stockholders full and fair value for their shares. By failing to reach an agreement with us, you and your stockholders have left significant value on the table.

But clearly a deal is not to be.

Thank you again for the time we have spent together discussing this.

Sincerely yours,
Steven A. Ballmer

Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corporation

Wall Street Journal hints at Google, Yahoo! pact

2nd May 2008 12:02 pm Yahoo

Wall Street Journal : “Yahoo Inc. could announce an agreement to carry search advertisements from Google Inc. within a week, as it braces for Microsoft Corp. to go hostile or abandon its unsolicited acquisition offer for Yahoo, say people familiar with the matter.

Yahoo was waiting for Microsoft to announce its approach this week, after the two sides failed to reach a negotiated deal amid a divide on price. But Yahoo has also been pursuing a broad agreement to carry search ads from Google”
Subcribers can read the full article here : Yahoo-Google Pact May Be Close

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Yahoo! empowers Women Entrepreneurs

29th April 2008 6:31 pm Yahoo

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced recipients of its “Seeds for Success: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs” grant program, choosing three unique, innovative business ideas from more than 5,500 proposals.

The grant recipients were selected by Yahoo! and Carolyn Kepcher, entrepreneur and former star of NBC’s “The Apprentice.” Each grant package includes $20,000 in cash, $5,000 in web site consulting, and web site hosting from Yahoo!.

Additionally, Kepcher’s new company, fwm (www.findingwhatmatters.com), will provide free one-on-one mentoring from leading business experts, including Kepcher; Bobbi Brown, founder and CEO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics; and Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines and author of the bestselling book, Basic Black: The Essential Guide to Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life).

Of the thousands of grant applications submitted since the program launched in March, many of the best business ideas focused on creative solutions to real life issues and interests such as the environment, the needs of children with disabilities, and lifestyle pursuits such as home decorating. Grant recipients are:

– Karla Duncan, Birmingham, Alabama: pediatric speech pathologist and founder and president of Head2Toe Publications, a developer of toys and educational materials for special needs children;

– Abby Port, Woodstock, Georgia: founder and CEO of Red Koala, a maker of customizable art for home decor, initially focusing on children’s rooms and nurseries;

– Dana Rubenstein, New York, New York: co-founder of Dapple, which will produce earth-friendly and baby-safe cleaning supplies for babies’ hands, toys, and feeding equipment such as bottles and sippy cups.

The three grant recipients will spend the next six months using resources from Yahoo! and fwm to grow their businesses, ultimately competing for a $10,000 bonus grant to be awarded in October. The public is invited to follow their progress online at http://seedsforsuccess.smallbusiness.yahoo.com, where updates and blog entries by the women entrepreneurs and fwm mentors will provide insight into the challenges, milestones, and successes that these new businesses will experience.

The response to “Seeds for Success” underscores findings from a new Harris Interactive survey about entrepreneurial aspirations. More than half (57 percent) of women respondents said they have thought about starting or have started their own business. When asked why they would want to start their own business, “passion for what they do” was selected as the top reason.

“We were thoroughly impressed by the response to the grant program and the many innovative and passionate business ideas that were submitted, especially those that demonstrated unique approaches to using the Internet to accelerate business growth,” said Susan Vobejda, vice president of marketing, Yahoo! Small Business. “As the trusted partner of choice for small businesses looking to launch or expand online, Yahoo! is thrilled to help the women of Dapple, Head 2 Toe, and Red Koala drive their businesses to new levels of success.”

“We are excited about helping bring together a ‘tailor-made’ team of mentors, drawing from the roster of experts that are lined up to contribute to fwm, my new online community for career women, and matching them to the specific needs of the women behind these worthwhile business ideas,” said Kepcher. “We are confident that this partnership with Yahoo! will have a lasting and positive impact on these women entrepreneurs and on the customers and communities they will serve.”

Would you like to know more about Digital Marketing? If so, contact Hit Search on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible.

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37% of employees more relaxed when they have a mobile phone

25th April 2008 5:48 pm Yahoo

According to Yahoo! HotJobs’ (http://hotjobs.yahoo.com) annual virtual workplace survey, 37 percent of employees feel more relaxed than stressed when they are connected to work by a wireless device, and another 42 percent are altogether indifferent to their wireless device, feeling neither relaxed nor stressed by it.

Along with the widespread acceptance of wireless devices may come a lapse in proper etiquette. Of those surveyed, 18 percent admit to being reprimanded for having bad manners when it comes to their wireless device. This behavior extends in and out of work with another 39 percent saying that they respond almost instantaneously when they receive a professional email or call outside of business hours.

“The gravity of leaving the house without your wireless device has become synonymous with that of leaving your keys at home, if not worse,” explains Tom Musbach, managing editor of Yahoo! HotJobs. “As the wireless device becomes more ubiquitous for personal and professional reasons, many employees develop a psychological need for constant connection.

While this connection can be a positive from a professional standpoint, it’s important to remember that the use of wireless devices needs to be managed and certain missteps avoided.”

Boardroom Security Blanket
With 38 percent of respondents describing their wireless device as a necessity, these gadgets have become exponentially more integrated into workplace culture:

The majority, 55 percent, of respondents use more than one wireless device to stay connected when outside of work;
More than half, 55 percent, of respondents say that their office supports a virtual workplace culture – allowing employees to choose from where they’d like to work;

Almost one in three, 28 percent, of respondents say that having the freedom of remote access via a wireless device helps them work more effectively than when they are in the office; and

Almost one quarter of survey respondents admit to only putting their wireless device down when they are sleeping, and only 5 percent of respondents admit to being 100 percent offline when not in the office—down from 8 percent last year.
 
Disconnect: Wireless Faux Pas
As wireless devices become further cemented into corporate culture, a spectrum of acceptable and unacceptable behavior has emerged:

Inappropriate wireless device etiquette (in order of least to most reprehensible):

Answering a work call or email during personal time after work hours
Talking on the phone while in close quarters (e.g. train, plane, bus)
Talking on the phone while in the bathroom
Answering the phone or emails while at a business dinner
Accepting a personal call while in a meeting or presentation
 

Keep Your Device in Check
Moderation is key. Here are a few tips from Yahoo! HotJobs’ Tom Musbach for keeping your wireless device habits within bounds:

Keep your device on vibrate to avoid interrupting others near your workspace.
Take personal and any other conversations that might make your coworkers uncomfortable into a conference room or other closed off area to avoid being overheard. Only answer absolutely necessary calls when in close quarters.
Don’t interrupt business meetings or dinners with calls or emails unless it is an emergency.
Use text messaging and emailing when possible—it’s less intrusive.
Let the person you are communicating with know that you are on a wireless device and that the conversation must be kept brief.
Some buildings don’t allow wireless device use. Adhere to the signs and be respectful of the surrounding environment. 
 

For more advice on making your wireless workplace work for you and other tools for managing your career, visit Yahoo! HotJobs at http://hotjobs.yahoo.com.

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