Microsoft and Yahoo!

[daschuck77]

So is Microsoft going to raise its bid?

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/newsanalysis/investing/10410916.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

[treydawg]

Not a chance. The board of Yahoo is plain nuts.

The economy is in shambles right now. No private equity firm has the capital or means to go out and buy Yahoo for the price that they want. Either the board caves in or shareholders will absolutely squash that company. The board is walking a tight line and they better watch their arse.

[daschuck77]

Not a chance. The board of Yahoo is plain nuts.

The economy is in shambles right now. No private equity firm has the capital or means to go out and buy Yahoo for the price that they want. Either the board caves in or shareholders will absolutely squash that company. The board is walking a tight line and they better watch their arse.

If Microsoft tries takeover by proxy what will that mean to either stock?

I already have Yahoo! Should I buy into Microsoft?

And maybe even Google too as they would love nothing more than to see Yahoo! value and appeal drop as they deal with any possible merger.

[treydawg]

You are already in on the speculative play by owning Yahoo. Buying Microsoft doesn't make much sense. What some people would do is to buy Yahoo and to short Microsoft. I wouldn't advice you to do this though.

I think in the end Yahoo will cave. Microsoft's stock will sink a bit as they are using their capital to purchase Yahoo. That causes the intrinsic value of Microsoft to go down.

Here's a little reading on the Yahoo/Microsoft spread:

http://www.quantmonitor.com/microsoft-yahoo-deal-update/

[daschuck77]

You are already in on the speculative play by owning Yahoo. Buying Microsoft doesn't make much sense. What some people would do is to buy Yahoo and to short Microsoft. I wouldn't advice you to do this though.

I think in the end Yahoo will cave. Microsoft's stock will sink a bit as they are using their capital to purchase Yahoo. That causes the intrinsic value of Microsoft to go down.

Here's a little reading on the Yahoo/Microsoft spread:

http://www.quantmonitor.com/microsoft-yahoo-deal-update/

I'm also looking at a potential deal with Natural resource companies BILLITON LIMITED (BHP) as they try to take over RIO TINTO (RTP) Rio Tinto is a small cap company trading like Google right now...look at their growth, it's unreal.

I'm invested into BHP as RIO TINTO is a little too rich in price.

[jimmifli]

If you're long, buy MS, wait.

A good write up from about a month ago on traffic/reach/ads/etc
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/18/the-web-in-charts%e2%80%94google-vs-microsoft-yahoo-vs-china/

[BuffaloRedleg]

dont touch it!

[daschuck77]

Yahoo's board is probably damning Legg Mason's Bill Miller with faint praise today.

Miller, whose firm is Yahoo's second-largest shareholder, told The Wall Street Journal "Microsoft blundered with the letter this weekend" by threatening to go hostile.

But Steve Ballmer probably isn't too upset with Miller, who also told the Journal "bumping the number a buck [from $31 a share] would have a big impact psychologically on shareholders."

In other words, Miller isn't supporting Yahoo's contention that Microsoft's $31 bid "substantially undervalues" Tech Ticker's parent.

Implicit in Miller's comments: Yahoo's management may have cost shareholders billions by seeking any and all alternatives to Microsoft's bid rather than sitting down for serious negotiations from the get-go, when Ballmer & Co. may have been more willing to raise the bid in order to get the deal done quickly.

Instead, two months have passed during which Google has continued to expand its dominance in search and Yahoo has demonstrated there are few, if any, legitimate alternatives to a deal with Microsoft, which has obviously grown frustrated with the stall tactics. Microsoft may now be less willing to significantly up its offer, a move Legg Mason's Bill Miller is giving tacit approval.

[daschuck77]

Jerry Yang is a world class wang. That is all that needs to be said after this debacle.

[sukie]

I'm kinda glad the deal is dead. Microsoft woulda figured a way to screw up the fantasy football.

[daschuck77]

Billionaire Carl Icahn buy 2.5 billion in shares to initiate a proxy bid for Microsoft at 33 dollars per share.

Mavs owner Mark Cuban is also on the alternate board of directors as well...wow.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080515/yahoo_icahn.html