|
Post by Emperor AAdmin on Nov 6, 2008 10:36:54 GMT -5
Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 6:34 AM PST Yahoo suggests Microsoft should make new offer
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal
Now that the ad deal with Google Inc. is off, Yahoo Inc. CEO Jerry Yang says his company is open to a new offer from Microsoft Corp.
"To this day, I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo," the Associated Press quoted Yang as saying late on Wednesday at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco.
Mountain View-based Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) said in its company blog Wednesday that it is ending its proposed advertising search deal with Sunnyvale-based Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) in the face of opposition from the U.S. government.
David Drummond, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google's chief legal officer and senior vice president for corporate development, wrote that after four months of review, "it's clear that government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement. Pressing ahead risked not only a protracted legal battle, but also damage to relationships with valued partners. That wouldn't have been in the long-term interests of Google or our users, so we have decided to end the agreement."
The companies said in June they were looking at a partnership that would let Yahoo display search ads sold by Google in exchange for a portion of the revenue. Critics of the deal said it would give Google too much control over online advertising.
Yahoo had figured deal would bring it between $250 million and $450 million in incremental operating cash flow in its first year and about $800 million in annual revenue.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) offered $33 a share for Yahoo earlier this year, a price Yang spurned as undervaluing the company. The stock closed Wednesday at less than half that price at $13.92. www.bizjournals.com/
|
|
|
Post by Emperor AAdmin on Nov 6, 2008 10:48:29 GMT -5
Just thinking out loud here.
Yahoo is at 14 now and it might get an offer for 35 per share within the next several months (granted it is accepted).
Target: YAHOO INC COM APR 18, 2009 $ 16.000 CALL(YHQDQ: OPRA)
That option is at $2.50 per contract now and it the stock hits $35 per share it will have a value of at least $19 per contract (35-16) at the expiration Friday of third week of April. That would be a move +660%. A $1000 investment would generate into $7600.
*If a offer is $40 and accepted then we are looking at +860% move.
|
|
|
Post by Emperor AAdmin on Nov 6, 2008 10:54:10 GMT -5
Rexxie any ideas on this bad boy and do you think it might drop one more time towards 11-12 (obviously a buy position) or is this the bottom for YHOO (again in such case obviously a buy position)?
|
|
Bozur
Amicus
Posts: 5,515
|
Post by Bozur on Nov 7, 2008 22:57:46 GMT -5
Microsoft not interested in new bid for Yahoo: report By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch Last update: 4:30 p.m. EST Nov. 7, 2008 Comments: 42
A previous version erroneously said that the merger dispute took place earlier this month, instead of earlier this year.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Yahoo Inc. plunged Friday after Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer was quoted in a media report saying the tech giant was not interested in "revisiting a possible acquisition" of the beleaguered Internet portal.
YHOO 12.20, -1.76, -12.6%) shares closed more than 12% lower after Dow Jones Newswires reported that Ballmer told a business group in Australia that Microsoft (MSFT) had "moved on" and was not thinking about making another bid for Yahoo.
"We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition," Ballmer said in Sydney. "We made an offer, we made another offer -- it was clear Yahoo didn't want to sell the business, and we moved on."
However, analyst Sandeep Aggarwal of Collins Stewart said he thinks the market "is overreacting to Steve Ballmer's comments," while noting that Ballmer also mentioned that some sort of combination with Yahoo's search business remains possible.
"I'm sure there are still opportunities for some kind of partnership on search," Ballmer was quoted as saying in the report.
Aggarwal said in a note to clients that Ballmer's remarks are "providing clear endorsement that Microsoft is still very interested in search only deal."
"We have been consistently highlighting that Microsoft will very likely come back, but for a search only deal and we stand by our thesis," Aggarwal said.
Analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates said Microsoft's reluctance to negotiate is not surprising.
"Yahoo is such a damaged property by now, and no one wants to do business with Yang, who has proven fairly treacherous in negotiations and no wants to waste their breath," he said. "Yahoo does have a value ... but much less than what Microsoft offered before. I can't see them coming to terms."
But, he said, Microsoft and Ballmer may come back if Yang is no longer in the picture. "I would think he'd be more interested in a post-Yang Yahoo. He wants a different interlocutor." Yahoo shares dropped $1.76 to $12.20.
Ballmer's statement marked another odd twist in the battle over the future Yahoo.
Microsoft and Yahoo slugged it out earlier this year over the software giant's unsolicited to buy the Internet portal. Negotiations eventually collapsed and Microsoft has said repeatedly that it was no longer interested in a merger.
But last month, Ballmer created a stir when he said during a Gartner conference in Orlando, Fla. that a merger between Microsoft and Yahoo "made sense, economically." His statement triggered a rally in Yahoo shares, although Microsoft later stressed that it was still not interested in buying Yahoo.
Ballmer's latest remarks follow Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang's statement earlier this week that he remained "very open minded" about a full or partial merger with Microsoft.
"The best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo," Yang had said during an appearance at a technology conference in San Francisco, "At the right price, whatever that price is."
Yang's statement came after the collapse of a planned advertising deal between Yahoo and Google Inc. (GOOG) , which could have netted Yahoo hundreds of millions of dollars in additional annual revenue. Antitrust regulators at the U.S. Justice Department had indicated they were prepared to sue to block the proposed deal.
End of Story
Benjamin Pimentel is a MarketWatch reporter based in San Francisco. www.marketwatch.com/
|
|
rex362
Senior Moderator
Pellazg
PELASGIANILLYROALBANIAN
Posts: 19,058
|
Post by rex362 on Nov 8, 2008 18:37:06 GMT -5
ooops late to the thread ....its down @12ish
might as well play it in or near the money now ....
Ive played the yahoo and ebay many times in the past ...but I'm laying off myself got screwed big the last few weeks on solid companies like UTX and PG options ....(dont ask )
|
|
|
Post by Emperor AAdmin on Nov 8, 2008 20:09:00 GMT -5
I am thinking that MSFT is playing ball and wants it to to drop before bidding again, smart. Perhaps it drops to 7 before they make a 20 bid.
|
|
rex362
Senior Moderator
Pellazg
PELASGIANILLYROALBANIAN
Posts: 19,058
|
Post by rex362 on Nov 9, 2008 18:30:40 GMT -5
7 or 11'sh it really don't matter if your gut tells you that msft will offer 20 buy a few for 2-3 months out .....
now you making me fidget and maybe buy some ....and I'm trying to stay out for a while ....ahhahha that gambling instinct is a beeeech
|
|
|
Post by Emperor AAdmin on Nov 9, 2008 18:54:03 GMT -5
ahhahha that gambling instinct is a beeeech
lol
I am just trying to read the situation here (thus no gut feeling really).
MSFT was all hot for YHOO 6 months back and I am sure that the crush did not die out that fast as there is no foreseeable reason for it to happen.
Girl rejected the guy six months ago and girl is showing signs of interests and naturally guys ego (being hurt a bit from before) will make him look a bit harder to get (but overall speaking - not that much harder ;D )
F question is whether one waits it drops several more bucks or is the buy at ~11 per share (which should hit by Tue-Wed).
|
|
rex362
Senior Moderator
Pellazg
PELASGIANILLYROALBANIAN
Posts: 19,058
|
Post by rex362 on Nov 11, 2008 15:53:12 GMT -5
oh man Ive had it all wrong ...Ive always looked at plays and always saw it as a gamble ... thanks for showing me to play it like a geeky love affair .. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D mmmmm good volume for X15 & X20 for april finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=YHOO&m=2009-04
|
|
rex362
Senior Moderator
Pellazg
PELASGIANILLYROALBANIAN
Posts: 19,058
|
Post by rex362 on Nov 11, 2008 19:24:55 GMT -5
Rexx's hot tiparoo
watch PG and/or UTX
2-3 days of downs and then tap it on short term options
PG @ 62 is always almost free money
|
|
|
Post by Emperor AAdmin on Nov 18, 2008 23:16:24 GMT -5
Why Yahoo Still Matters for You Despite Recent Blows, Size Keeps It a Valuable Partner for Advertisers
By Abbey Klaassen and Michael Learmonth
Published: November 17, 2008 NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Its Google search deal is history, Microsoft is no longer a suitor, and a combination with Time Warner's AOL is theoretical, at least for now. Its stock has gone from an all-time high of $33.63 in October 2007 to $10.34 as of Nov. 12 of this year. And yet Yahoo is a lot more valuable in the eyes of Madison Avenue than it is in the eyes of Wall Street, thanks to an important but oft-forgotten point in the debate over how old and stodgy the traditional portal model might be: Size still matters. According to Chrysler, a home-page buy on Yahoo is worth 75 TV ratings points or the equivalent of four 30-second spots in a hit prime-time show such as ABC's 'Desperate Housewives.' According to Chrysler, a home-page buy on Yahoo is worth 75 TV ratings points or the equivalent of four 30-second spots in a hit prime-time show such as ABC's 'Desperate Housewives.'
"Advertisers are looking at where's the traffic, volume and value is today. And today is very positive for advertisers at Yahoo," said Chris Moloney, chief marketing officer at Scottrade, which in August was the top online-ad spender, according to TNS Media Intelligence. "Google is considered to be the 800-pound gorilla of the internet but it doesn't have content the way Yahoo does. It receives a massive volume of traffic."
Just ask Chrysler. Recently, the automaker's chief marketing officer, Deborah Wahl Meyer, talked about using NBC, Fox and Yahoo as the media pillars of a big campaign to push the automaker's 2009 Dodge Ram truck. She said she thinks of Yahoo "almost as a fifth network."
Indeed, according to Chrysler, a home-page buy on Yahoo is worth 75 TV ratings points -- the equivalent of four 30-second spots in a hit prime-time show such as ABC's "Desperate Housewives." To promote the Ram, Chrysler bought not just Yahoo's home page but also those of MSN and AOL.
"We needed to go wide and build awareness, but we have to be smart about serving the right content to the right consumer at the right time," said Susan Thomson, director-media at the automaker. That's why it also used Yahoo's behavioral-targeting technology to craft 30 different ad units that could be served up based on behavioral habits. "To us as a partner, yes, [Yahoo] is valuable," she said.
Wall Street shrugs
You wouldn't know that looking at the company's stock price, down almost 65% in the past year. Factoring out the past two months, when everyone's stock price plummeted, it was still off 45% from November 2007.
But Aimee Reker, senior VP-global director of search for MRM Worldwide, said if she were in the financial-analysis space, she'd rate it a buy. "It's undervalued," she said, noting that not only does Yahoo have scale, it has scale against its own content. Indeed, for all its recent efforts, Yahoo missed the boat on search and social networking, but it remains the dominant player in online display advertising.
"Yahoo has the greatest scale and the greatest potential as a brand builder in the online world," said Rob Norman, CEO, Group M Interaction. That doesn't mean it is guaranteed success at a time when the online display market will be challenged in 2009. J.P. Morgan's Imran Khan last week dropped his growth estimate for the category to 6% from 16%. How that will affect Yahoo depends on how advertisers react.
If, for example, among the top 500 brand advertisers in the market for home-page takeovers on AOL, MSN and Yahoo, a few start buying one or two rather than all three, then Yahoo probably wins in that it takes share in a flat market. But if advertisers flee to smaller sites, such as iVillage, Martha Stewart Living and CondeNet or video sites with smaller, more-engaged audiences such as Hulu and ABC.com or to ad networks, Yahoo could have trouble.
Recently, a few buyers have grumbled that Yahoo hasn't been bringing the sharpest ideas to the table. One buyer on an auto account lamented that when he had lots of money to spend for an upcoming first-quarter campaign, the big idea Yahoo brought back was a banner buy. It didn't win the business.
Math problem?
Part of Yahoo's choice, Mr. Norman said, is whether to play to its strengths in display advertising or attempt to out-Google Google and the ad networks. "The dominant gene in Yahoo is to think of advertising as a math problem -- machines talking to machines," he said. "If you reduce it to a math problem, we go to Ad.com."
Weighing on Yahoo is that even growth of 6% may be optimistic. Optimedia CEO Antony Young said online display spending among his clients overall will be flat in the fourth quarter. In a low-growth or flat market, Yahoo's best-case scenario would be to take share from both its online and offline competitors, including TV, newspapers and radio.
"I think they will be more successful in competing for general advertising budgets," Mr. Young said. "In recessionary markets, strong brands ... are lower-risk buys from the client perspective."
That could also help Yahoo compete against others gobbling up portal dollars, such as MySpace. News Corp.'s social network has made huge strides in the past year in tapping entertainment dollars and rivals Yahoo in terms of reach, but social networks are still considered experimental.
Joanne Bradford, Yahoo's new revenue chief, is optimistic that the company will come out of the recession in a stronger position than its competitors, mainly because it has so many assets. "Yahoo has more levers to pull in this market than any competitor," she said. (Of course, Ms. Bradford knows one competitor -- MSN, which she used to run -- very well.)
Successes
Consider, for a moment, Yahoo's recent achievements: Its Olympics site, Yahoo Olympics, dominated the games in August, bringing in more visitors in the U.S. than NBC and Microsoft's NBCOlympics.com. In September, Yahoo Video overtook MySpace TV as the second-ranked video site to Google's YouTube. Some of its recent content initiatives have borne fruit. Its original entertainment show "Primetime in No Time" is getting a million views a day. Its business show, "TechTicker" on Yahoo Finance is getting 450,000 views a day, which compares favorably with CNBC. The first intimate photos of President-elect Barack Obama and his family on election night appeared on Yahoo's photo-sharing site, Flickr.
And there are pockets of innovation at Yahoo that excite advertisers, such as mobile -- an area where "Yahoo is pushing the envelope in ways Google's not," said Daina Middleton, senior VP-director of Sunao at Moxie Interactive. Another bright spot is its Yahoo Consumer Direct service, a partnership with Nielsen and Wal-Mart that helps trace web ads to in-store sales. adage.com/
|
|
|
Post by Emperor AAdmin on Nov 18, 2008 23:17:38 GMT -5
paidContent.org Ad Industry React: No Quick Fixes Expected For Post-Yang Yahoo Tuesday November 18, 7:24 pm ET By David Kaplan
The news that Jerry Yang would be stepping aside as CEO of Yahoo (NasdaqGS: YHOO - News) cheered investors, but online ad industry execs aren't sure much has changed. And while shareholders would be thrilled by a Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT - News) takeover, advertisers and publishers can't tell if that will ultimately prove positive either. In essence, there's a lot that's right about Yahoo—a strong consumer brand with popular sites and social net tools—but the company has been so unfocused for so long, no quick turnaround is expected. Some ad industry comments:
-- Where it started going wrong: Rob Norman, CEO, GroupM: Yahoo started going awry when it tried to compete head-to-head with the entertainment industry. When Terry Semel, a Warner Bros. exec for over two decades, was brought in back in April 2001, followed three years later with the hiring of former TV exec Lloyd Braun to run the Yahoo Media Group, the company's perspective started getting muddled. Then, when Dan Rosensweig, former Yahoo COO and currently being mentioned as Yang's possible successor, and former chief sales officer Wenda Harris Millard, left the company, they took Yahoo's commercial intelligence with them. Norman: "The zenith of Yahoo's relationship with advertisers was when Wenda was there. Both she and Dan had highly commercial mindsets and realized the value of the 'big reach meeting big brand' concept of Internet ad space. My sense is that Jerry is essentially a technology person, and a brilliant one. He's a great guiding spirit, and could be a great chairman, but he's not a Steve Ballmer or Dan Rosensweig or Eric Schmidt. He's not a great CEO."
-- Yahoo's value: Norman added that from an ad industry standpoint, Yahoo is still highly relevant to marketers and agencies by dint of its enormous reach. Yahoo has more e-mail accounts than everyone else, more impressions, more photos uploaded on Flickr, and therefore reports of its death are grossly premature. "My sense is that a new CEO can connect with advertisers and connect its product strategy."
-- Leadership vacuum: One online publisher, who didn't want to be identified, agreed with Norman that Yahoo has enormous reach, but questioned its value. "Yahoo mail is not going to do squat for you as an advertiser. Yahoo News and other parts of the portal are interesting properties, but the leadership vacuum—which existed long before Jerry—could never figure out what Yahoo was at its core. Is Yahoo a bunch of disparate items cobbled together within an ad network model? Maybe. But how far can you take that? Whoever ends up there, it's not going to be a quick fix. From a company strategy perspective, they're built the same way today as they were five years ago. The next CEO will have to take it apart and put it back together." More after the jump
Photo Credit: Yodel Anecdotal
-- The Microsoft option: While most of the execs I spoke to say that a Microsoft takeover would be the best thing for the Yahoo shareholders, at least initially, that company wouldn't necessarily be able to fix what's wrong either. "Microsoft's own content play is a disaster and a mess," the web publishing exec said. "MSN, because it's a portal, often is compared to Yahoo. MSN hasn't been able to do well at things Yahoo has been able to do well, such as creating the Yahoo Newspaper Consortium." As for what Yahoo should be looking for in a replacement for Yang, Bryan Wiener, CEO of interactive ad shop 360i, says a fresh face would help temporarily energize Yahoo's internal and external stakeholders. The question is whether there is a long-term plan that is viable for their shareholders. More likely, Jerry stepping aside could trigger a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo. Both sides could use what the other has to offer. Microsoft needs this deal to make their advertising offerings more compelling and Yahoo may need this deal to pacify enraged investors.
-- The portal problem: Although portals started making a comeback in 2006, the rise of social nets and vertical ad nets have diminished their value. And Yahoo has not been able to update its offerings adequately in order to remain strong, said Joelle Kaufman, Adify's VP of marketing. "Yahoo is the most significant online media destination. They have to figure out how to be that in a market where advertisers are figuring out very efficient ways on reaching their target audience. Social net sites and verticals have figured out a way to keep users engaged; they're not just passing through."
-- Yahoo DNA vs. Google DNA: As for Yahoo's business model, Kaufman said the critique that Yahoo has not done well when it comes to "execution" of platforms—like Panama—misses the point. "It's not execution, it's Yahoo's DNA that is the problem. Basically, they're not Google and they shouldn't have tried to go up against Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG - News). Yahoo is one of the most prominent online brands. People do spend time there, whereas no one spends any time on Google. The brilliance of Google was that they monetized every place they send you. That makes Google the best direct response solution. Yahoo creates as sticky a destination as they can. The problem is, Google is sending those users to quality mid-tail sites. So what Yahoo has to do is figure out how to use its social platforms—the e-mail, the IM, the aggregation—and be the best place for branding that it can be and not try to challenge Google as the best DR solution."
-- A math problem: In further analyzing Yahoo's stance towards Google, GroupM's Norman identifies how the company neglected its key proposition: figuring out how to turn its reach to important user demos in into ad dollars. "I'm not saying Yahoo should have pulled out of search. They have their place. But when you're in the ad business and you own inventory, there is a degree to which selling your ads is an arts issue and also a math issue. The key is reconciling those. My sense is that the people directing sales believe it mostly to be a math issue. Yahoo's principle asset is their broad reach. Instead of building substantial programs aimed at engaging advertisers and consumers, they spent too much time looking at the math of optimizing impressions." biz.yahoo.com/
|
|
rex362
Senior Moderator
Pellazg
PELASGIANILLYROALBANIAN
Posts: 19,058
|
Post by rex362 on Nov 20, 2008 16:31:16 GMT -5
what a wacky ride today on the roller coaster....
WHACK YAHOO NOW ....ITS AT 9
my gut tells me up $1-$2 up tomorrow
|
|
rex362
Senior Moderator
Pellazg
PELASGIANILLYROALBANIAN
Posts: 19,058
|
Post by rex362 on Nov 22, 2008 19:25:26 GMT -5
well it ended up but nothing like my gut told me ...not gutty enough I guess
|
|
rex362
Senior Moderator
Pellazg
PELASGIANILLYROALBANIAN
Posts: 19,058
|
Post by rex362 on Feb 24, 2009 15:33:15 GMT -5
Emperor....got my ass back in DNDN ...and possibly back into small techs
otherwise its been crapola
|
|
rex362
Senior Moderator
Pellazg
PELASGIANILLYROALBANIAN
Posts: 19,058
|
Post by rex362 on Apr 3, 2009 13:23:58 GMT -5
DNDN on the prowl .....up 40% at moment .....
later in april its has some fda thingy ....see if it pops again like last year
I eF'd up on Rimm .....its up 10 bux today ..had some calls for this month ...sold em last week so I can have more money to buy more DNDN shares
somebody Shoot me !!
|
|
rex362
Senior Moderator
Pellazg
PELASGIANILLYROALBANIAN
Posts: 19,058
|
Post by rex362 on Apr 14, 2009 10:10:56 GMT -5
dont shoot me ...I did good ...
hard to be humble today ......its my day ...
|
|
rex362
Senior Moderator
Pellazg
PELASGIANILLYROALBANIAN
Posts: 19,058
|
Post by rex362 on May 16, 2009 17:39:25 GMT -5
I picked up some Jan 2010 X20 and a few Jan 2011 X25's
|
|