Beyond Binary

The Federal Trade Commission has given its approval to Carl Icahn's efforts to accumulate Yahoo holdings, according to a Reuters report.

In addition to overseeing actual mergers and so forth, the agency also looks at large stock purchases, the news agency noted, saying the approval was listed in an agency report that comes out several times a week.

Of course, of all the people looking to acquire pieces of Yahoo, Icahn is the one least likely to encounter antitrust scrutiny. Google has raised concerns over a Microsoft purchase, while Microsoft has questioned whether Yahoo should be allowed to do a deal with Google.

Meanwhile, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said at the D: All Things Digital conference that his company is still talking, or rather listening, to proposals from Microsoft on something less than a full merger.

Many of those I talked to at the conference say they still expect a full merger, though plenty privately echoed Rupert Murdoch's very public puzzlement at why the two have not managed to reach an accord already.

CARLSBAD, Calif.--The idea that just because a TV show is popular that lots of people are watching the accompanying ads is a myth, says Tom Rogers.

And Rogers would know. As TiVo's CEO, Rogers has access to data that shows just how many people watch how many seconds of which commercial. Now, obviously that correlation is greater among non-TiVo customers, who don't have the luxury of skipping over the ads. Rogers was interviewed by Kara Swisher at the D6 conference here Thursday.

Still, Rogers said that television needs to fundamentally transition its ad model to one in which advertising is both more appealing to consumers as well as more measurable. More like the Internet, in other words.

Swisher pressed Rogers on how the company has done a better job of popularizing a product category than it has creating a large, profitable business.

"No, the business has not gone as well as the (phenomenon)," Rogers said.

As for becoming synonimous with the DVR, Rogers said "That's a blessing and also a curse," noting that people who have other "contraptions" think they have a TiVo.

He noted that the company has a third business model, in addition to selling subscriptions and offering custom advertising. That's getting royalties from other DVR makers.

Rogers said that the company is close to getting injunctive and financial relief in its long-running case against Echostar and suggested that may help bring others to the table. Still, he said TiVo's first goal is to actually work with cable and satellite providers.

"We want commercial deals," he said. "We sue as a last result."

CARLSBAD, Calif.--Melinda Gates said Tuesday that the job of giving away billions used to be a lot harder.

Melinda Gates talks about the work she and Bill Gates are doing to tackle global health challenges.

(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News.com)

In her early days with Bill Gates, she said the couple would get heart wrenching letters seeking their help and the two would agonize over what to do. But, after recognizing that their real opportunity was addressing society's biggest challenges, she said it has gotten easier to figure out where to put their resources.

Gates said all of the foundation's work is centered around a single purpose--that all lives have equal value. Gates said that her goal is to help further a world in which the lives of a man or a woman are treated the same whether they live in Boston or Botswana or Bangladesh.

"The world does not treat all lives with equal value," she said.

Her work has made for some strange bedfellows. In the foundation's work with U.S. public education issues, it is funding a project in New York that is headed by Joel Klein, the attorney who spearheaded the antitrust case against Microsoft.

"Joel Klein has this incredible business vision," she said of the work he and Mayor Michael Bloomberg are doing in New York. "They are willing to be bold. They are willing to say we are going to shut down schools that aren't working."

Mossberg asked Gates how she felt about Bill's plans once he steps down from Microsoft. She said she is looking forward to his new role.

"I knew he wasn't going to wear a tool belt around the house," Gates said. "That's always been very clear."

Click here for full coverage of the D: All Things Digital conference.

CARLSBAD, Calif.--Segway inventor Dean Kamen plans to show off one of his latest inventions at the D: All Things Digital conference on Thursday. Kamen, who has done much work in the medical field, will reveal a new kind of artificial arm that he says is vastly superior to existing prosthetics.

(Credit: Dean Kamen)

In a brief interview on Wednesday, Kamen told me what separates this new limb from past efforts is the depth of motion that it can offer. With just two days of training, said Kamen, the founder of Deka Research and Development, a soldier who lost both arms in Iraq was able to use the prosthetics to disassemble and then reassemble an M-16 rifle.

On my recent trip to Colombia, I saw some nonprofits doing some incredible work in the area of prosthetics legs--a particularly important project in Colombia where land mines continue to injure large numbers of people.

Kamen said that while mines tend to blow off legs, the improvised explosives used in Iraq tend to sever arms, a trickier limb to replicate. Anyway, he'll have more to say on his work on Thursday.

Click here for full coverage of the D: All Things Digital conference.

While some attendees grumbled that speakers were less than forthcoming, that could most certainly not be said for Rupert Murdoch, who was plenty outspoken in his evening chat.

I posted my take earlier, but here's some video, courtesy of the All Things D site.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Click here for full coverage of the D: All Things Digital conference.

CARLSBAD, Calif.--Rupert Murdoch, who is no stranger to the Microsoft-Yahoo affair, said even he is shaking his head at the lack of a deal.

"I'm mystified," Murdoch said. "I cannot understand the whole thing. Jerry Yang is a friend who we all love and admire and he's emotional about it."

Murdoch said that Microsoft offered a price that the vast majority of shareholders wanted but that Yang managed, at least for now, to fend them off. At the same, time, he said he's surprised Microsoft didn't press the point, something he said comes from their lack of mega-deal experience.

"They're not used to big deals, to buying big things," Murdoch said.

Murdoch said if he were Microsoft, he would have put the offer out there and let shareholders do the work for them. "You aim the gun. You decide to fire the gun. You've just got to sit and wait. It will come to you."

He is dubious, though, that a Microsoft-Yahoo deal isn't a merger that will actually come to fruition. "I think that will be rejected by the board, by everybody."

Murdoch also put in his two cents about whether Yahoo deals should be held up by regulators. "It would be very sad," he said. "Google is so good. (The have the) best search engine by far. They are just going on, getting bigger and bigger. It is just gushing money. You can see why Microsoft is worried."

On Carl Icahn's move, he said, "That's not serious. He wants to make a couple hundred million dollars for himself."

The noise helps Microsoft's cause, he said, but as for the actual proxy threat, he said, "If I were a Yahoo director, I wouldn't be worried about that."

Although Murdoch himself was once a player in a potential joint venture that would combine Microsoft, Yahoo, and Fox's MySpace assets, he said that deal appears to be off the table.

Murdoch also addressed plenty of other topics.

On Hulu: "We wanted to control our copyrights and we thought this would be a pretty good way of doing it."

On Google's gripes about social-networking advertising: "They shouldn't be griping," he said. "They said they never expected to make that money the first year."

That said, "we want them, whatever happens, not to lose money at least on the third year," Murdoch said. He also praised them as "great partners."

"We love them," he said. "I think they are the greatest company in America."

He did say that the public does want choice: "You don't want anybody to be a monopoly and own everything."

On Yahoo: They made a fatal mistake. They bought Overture and sat on it for two years. "They have a huge job a head of them to hold onto their 20 percent, let alone to grow it. I wish them a lot of luck."

On Microsoft's search ambitions: "How can they build on their 8 or 9 percent? God knows. I'm not an expert, but this doesn't appear to be their expertise."

Asked about Fox News, Murdoch responded that broadcaster, like Brit Hume, have both sides represented on their shows.

Conference co-host Walt Mossberg responds: "He has both sides on, but he kicks the crap out of one of them."

Click here for full coverage of the D: All Things Digital conference.

CARLSBAD, Calif.--While all big CEOs are under scrutiny, the attention focused on Jerry Yang has been particularly intense. That intensity was on evidence during Wednesday's appearance at the D:All Things Digital conference here.

Colleague Dan Farber offered his thoughts about how they did, while Webware's Rafe Needleman posted a live blog. But I think the video itself is worth checking out to give a full view of what things look like on that very warm chair.

Here's part one:

And here's part two:

Click here for full coverage of the D: All Things Digital conference.

CARLSBAD, Calif.--Microhoo remained the topic of the day here, with the latest to offer his opinion being Thomson Reuters CEO Thomas Glocer.

"I don't think Jerry needs my advice," he said, but then went on to say, "I think they need each other. I think it makes a lot of sense. One way or another, I'd be surprised if there wasn't some way to make that happen."

That said, he pointed out that the media tends to make things all about one company, in this case Google. But he said, even with Google, there's room for the Intels, IBMs, and Microsofts of the world. "These are fantastic companies that have a lot of runway," Glocer said.

Up next, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who just took the stage. Check out Rafe Needleman's Live Blog to see what he has to say about that and other topics.

Click here for full coverage of the D: All Things Digital conference.

Updated at 3:47 p.m. PDT to include questions from audience.

CARLSBAD, Calif.--Yahoo's Jerry Yang and Sue Decker may have gotten a tough time from Walt Mossberg, but perhaps they should consider themselves lucky.

Next up at the D6 conference here was Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. A humorous video poked plenty of fun at the executive culminating in a discussion of whether D host Kara Swisher would cut off Bewkes' genitalia.

Jeff Bewkes

(Credit: Time Warner)

Clearly prepared, Bewkes came onstage covering his crotch.

Probably a good idea. In the first 30 seconds, Swisher fired off questions on everything from The Sopranos ending to, "Why the hell did you pay $850 million for Bebo?"

The grilling is continuing as I type this, and is now on to the AOL merger.

"Would you like to unload AOL?"

"No," Bewkes said.

Amid the thrashing, Bewkes said he knew what Swisher was really thinking, pointing to how the company had transitioned from a subscription to largely free ad-supported business still earning $2 billion a year.

"Yeah, no," Swisher said. "I'm thinking you missed a lot of great opportunities."

Swisher pointed specifically to social networking, saying it should have been AOL, not Facebook, that capitalized on that move.

"It is our fault," Bewkes said. "That's true."

The grilling didn't end with Swisher, however. When she opened it up to questions, the audience was hostile as well.

The first question was about why Time Warner gives an hour of air time to Lou Dobbs' views, drawing a smattering of applause from the crowd. Next up was a Yahoo executive, armed with ComScore numbers, taking issue with many of the categories in which Bewkes had claimed to be No. 1. Bewkes said he had meant to say No. 1, No. 2, or No. 3.

Swisher said the questions raised by the Yahoo executive were a bit like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

Click here for full coverage of the D: All Things Digital conference.