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What Microsoft has to say for itself

Microsoft has kicked off its earnings conference call, after posting quarterly results and outlook that were below what some analysts were projecting.

I'll update this blog once there's more to report. For now, Microsoft is just going through the formalities. (And the sound quality, at least here at CNET, is terrible, with investor relations chief Colleen Healy barely audible).

Update: 2:40 p.m. PDT: CFO Chris Liddell speaking, noting that, since its last conference call, Microsoft has decided to invest more in both acquisitions and in in its own online services business.

He noted disappointment in Microsoft'… Read more

New Yahoo filing. A lot like the old Yahoo filing

Another day, another filing. By now, you'd think Yahoo had said all that it could say about its increasingly rancorous disagreement with Carl Icahn over the future of the company.

Not by a long shot.

Earlier today, the company issued an in-your-face challenge to Carl Icahn in a letter to shareholders, which also singled out Microsoft for poor judgment. But that didn't exhaust Yahoo's surprising gift for gab.

In the run-up to its highly-anticipated shareholders meeting on August 1, Yahoo filed a document with the Securities & Exchange Commission after the close of trading.

The document rehashes … Read more

Microsoft earnings don't wow

Sales of Windows were strong last quarter, but weaker than expected results from online advertising and the Office units led Microsoft earnings to come in a penny per share below analysts estimates. Microsoft also issued an outlook for the current quarter that fell short of what some analysts were projecting.

For the three months ended June 30, Microsoft said it earned $4.3 billion, or 36 cents per share, on revenue of $15.84 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30. That was within the range Microsoft forecast in April, although revenue was slightly higher than the $15.… Read more

Yahoo letter to shareholders

As the fight over Yahoo heats up in preparation for the August 1 shareholder meeting, the embattled company sent a letter to shareholders on Thursday, urging them to vote against a proposal from investor Carl Icahn.

Below is the full text of the letter.

Dear Fellow Stockholder:

The recently-formed Carl Icahn-Microsoft alliance continues to make misleading statements about their plans for Yahoo!. Your Board of Directors believes strongly that the Icahn-Microsoft agenda--as presented to us jointly last week--will destroy stockholder value at Yahoo!, serving only their very narrow special interests, clearly not your interests.

Your Board continues to work to … Read more

Yahoo letter: Icahn is only looking out for himself

In a new letter to shareholders, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock claim that the latest proposal from Microsoft and investor Carl Icahn "will destroy stockholder value at Yahoo."

The letter, released Thursday, complains that Icahn only invested in Yahoo two months ago, and is just looking for a deal to "recover his investment and get back his money quickly, even a deal that does not provide full and fair value to you."

The letter is part of the months of sniping among the companies, investors, and other interested parties, all leading up to … Read more

Yahoo and Microsoft step up Time Warner AOL discussions

Updated at 1:36 p.m. PDT with a report on AOL executives meeting with Microsoft.

Yahoo and Microsoft have both accelerated their respective deal-making talks with Time Warner's AOL, as a proxy fight looms less than three weeks away between Yahoo and investor activist Carl Icahn, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

"The ongoing talks between all the companies have recently picked up," said the source.

That may come as no surprise, given that Yahoo over the weekend rejected a sweetened Microsoft offer to buy just its search assets and the board of directors … Read more

Yahoo takes defense of Google ad deal to Capitol Hill

Yahoo defended its planned advertising deal with Google at a U.S. Senate hearing on Tuesday, while Microsoft assailed it as anticompetitive and perhaps even "illegal."

The hearing before an antitrust panel replayed arguments that the three companies have made before: Microsoft is trying to raise antitrust objections as a way to derail the deal, and the two Silicon Valley firms say it's perfectly fine and a boon to competition.

One reason Microsoft is so irked is that the ad deal amounts to a poison pill that would raise the price of buying Yahoo by as much … Read more

Yahoo's declining share price a drag on Icahn's proxy fight?

Yahoo's share price has been hit with an 8.6 percent decline over the past two days, signaling investors may be less than thrilled with Microsoft's sweetened offer to buy the Internet pioneer's search assets.

That may be problematic for investor activist Carl Icahn, who is hoping to use Microsoft's sweetened bid as a means to entice Yahoo investors to vote for his slate of dissident directors, as he seeks to oust Yahoo's current board of directors in a proxy battle.

Yahoo closed at $21.54 a share on Tuesday, down 8.6 percent since … Read more

Yahoo-Google deal could raise ad costs by double digits

Yahoo's search advertising agreement with Google could result in more than a 20 percent jump in keyword prices for advertisers, according to an independent report released Tuesday by SearchIgnite.

The report, culled from 12 million paid search clicks from January through June via 15,000 active keywords managed via SearchIgnite's technology, examined the cost difference between Yahoo and Google for tail terms, head terms, and brand terms.

A Yahoo-Google deal could drive up Yahoo keyword prices by an average of 22 percent if the Internet search pioneer seeks to gain as much profits as possible from that deal, … Read more

The backstory on Senate's Google-Yahoo hearing

The U.S. Senate is holding a hearing Tuesday on the antitrust implications of the Google-Yahoo ad deal, and the two companies, along with Microsoft, are testifying. You should expect sober, selfless discussions conducted with the public's best interests in mind.

Or not. In reality, Microsoft will offer fanciful claims about the alleged detrimental impact of a Google-Yahoo partnership, just as Google offered fanciful claims a few months ago about the alleged detrimental impact of a Microsoft-Yahoo combination.

According to his prepared testimony, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith will call the Google-Yahoo deal possibly "illegal under the antitrust … Read more