microhoo

Icahn applies Oracle-BEA playbook to Yahoo-Microsoft bid

Investor activist Carl Icahn took a page out of his Oracle-BEA Systems matchmaker's playbook to try to strike a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft on Friday.

Problem was--same play, different results.

In the Oracle bid for BEA, Icahn intervened when the parties called it quits and directly hammered out a deal with Oracle that he could live with, according to the blow-by-blow BEA filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And once he got a deal he could be happy with, Icahn, BEA's largest individual shareholder, took the Oracle proposal over to BEA with a proverbial shotgun in … Read more

Yahoo rejects joint-bid for search business by Icahn and Microsoft

Updated July 13 at 8:43 a.m. PDT, with more details about offer.

Yahoo announced Saturday night that it rejected a joint-buyout proposal that Microsoft and investor activist Carl Icahn offered the night before, which called for a "complex restructuring" and sale of Yahoo's search business to Microsoft.

The joint proposal, issued Friday night, gave Yahoo a 24-hour turnaround to accept or reject the renewed offer. It called for Microsoft to buy the search business and Yahoo to swap out its board members for Icahn's dissident slate, who would then have control in running the … Read more

Antitrust hearing to draw Yahoo, Microsoft, Google legal eagles

Top legal counsel for Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft will address a Congressional hearing Tuesday, as lawmakers examine the Yahoo-Google search advertising agreement and its potential anticompetitive effects on the future of Internet advertising.

The Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcomittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will call Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith, Yahoo general counsel Michael Callahan, and Google chief legal officer David Drummond to testify as witnesses.

Lawmakers, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, are examining whether Google's dominant market share in text ads that appear next to search results would raise antitrust issues, … Read more

Murdoch: News Corp.-Yahoo deal unlikely

Rupert Murdoch weighed in on the Yahoo-Microsoft-Icahn threesome Thursday, saying it was "very unlikely" his media giant News Corp. would be involved any Yahoo deal, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Media reports last week indicated Microsoft might be interested in hooking up with News Corp. to make a joint bid for Yahoo and that Yahoo was also separately talking to News Corp. as well as a possible route toward fending off a proxy battle with investor activist Carl Icahn, who wants to push a sale of the company to Microsoft.

Murdoch, who spoke to reporters … Read more

So Larry Page, Sue Decker, Terry Semel and Bill Miller go into a bar...

It must have been a sight to set even the jaded billionaire hearts attending Allen & Company's Sun Valley conference fluttering: Spotted at a barroom table Wednesday night were none other than Google co-founder Larry Page, his new business partner, embattled Yahoo president Susan Decker, former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, and Bill Miller, who manages a fund at Legg Mason that's one of Yahoo's biggest shareholders.

Unfortunately, we don't know what they said. But, according to The New York Times, the consensus among lip readers in the room was that Page and Miller were dominating the … Read more

Yahoo's Yang throws jabs at Microsoft and Icahn

Updated at 2:20 p.m. PDT, with details about an opinion piece by Yahoo board member Gary Wilson in The Wall Street Journal.

After taking a one-two punch from investor activist Carl Icahn and Microsoft on Monday, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang threw a few punches of his own in an interview in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

Yang is facing a proxy fight with Icahn, who is seeking to unseat the board and oust the Yahoo co-founder and chief executive from his top-dog position.

In a counter punch, Yang characterized Microsoft as trying to "destabilize" the … Read more

Legg Mason suggests $33 a share for Yahoo

Yahoo's third largest investor offered up some advice Tuesday to dissident shareholder Carl Icahn on what it may take to swing investor votes his way in a proxy fight, according to a Reuters report.

Legg Mason portfolio manager Bill Miller had this observation to offer to Reuters, when queried on whether he would support Icahn's proxy fight to unseat Yahoo's board of directors at the company's August 1 shareholders meeting:

The difficulty with Icahn is he'd have more shareholder support if he would say he wouldn't sell the company for less than $33.

Earlier … Read more

History provides some insight on Microhoo

Microsoft's announcement Monday that it was open to a new Yahoo deal, but only with a new board, struck some as odd. Wouldn't it be better for Microsoft to reach a pact now--with Yahoo's board on the ropes and ahead of its proxy showdown?

Perhaps, but I think Microsoft has come to the conclusion that it just can't deal with Yahoo's current board, regardless of how badly it might need Yahoo's scale.

Over the July 4 weekend, I read Barbarians at the Gate, the classic business tome about Kohlberg Kravis Roberts' takeover of RJR … Read more

Icahn also fighting clock in Yahoo board challenge

Investor activist Carl Icahn needed a sign, a tangible sign, that Microsoft was still interested in buying Yahoo, or at a minimum, its search business, if he were to increase his chances of winning his proxy fight to unseat the company's entire board of directors.

On Monday, in a coordinated effort, Microsoft delivered that sign. The software giant issued a public statement that it was not only willing to discuss a potential buyout of Yahoo's search business, but also, alternatively, a renewed bid for the entire company--providing a "new" board was elected at Yahoo's August … Read more