GE, Microsoft discussed Dow Jones bid: report
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General Electric Co.  and  Microsoft Corp.  discussed joining forces for a  competing bid for Dow Jones & Co.  in recent weeks, but  the idea was abandoned, the Wall Street Journal reported on  Monday.
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In spite of Google's annual revenue growth of 52%, many Wall Street analysts are now advising their clients to hold off on buying Google stock. Has Microsoft's bid for Yahoo made that much of a dent, or are there other factors at play?
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Confirming&#160;weekend rumors, Yahoo rejected on Monday&#160;Microsoft&#39;s $44.6 billion cash-and-stock offer, saying the unsolicited proposal substantially undervalues the company.In a statement, Yahoo said that its management team, along with financial and legal advisors, believe the offer doesn&#39;t reflect cash flow, earnings potential, or recent investments in its advertising platform.Further, Yahoo said its board would continue to&#160;evaluate other &quot;strategic options.&quot;&#160;[&#160;See related Special Report:&#160;Microsoft makes bid for Yahoo&#160;| Blog:&#160;&#160;Yahoo + Microsoft: What&#39;s love got to do with it?&#160; ]&quot;We remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all stockholders,&quot; the statement said.Microsoft offered $31 per share on Feb. 1, which was a 62 percent premium over Yahoo&#39;s closing price the day before. Since then,&#160;Yahoo&#39;s stock has risen in value&#160;and was trading just above $29 on Monday morning.Yahoo&#39;s executives were rumored to have been searching for a buyer other than Microsoft. However, no buyer has emerged. Yahoo&#39;s latest moves mean that Microsoft may have make a more generous offer, or pursue a hostile takeover.Microsoft said it believes the acquisition of Yahoo would give it the engineering talent and resources to compete better with Google. While Microsoft and Yahoo have had some success with display advertising, Google has built a fortune on contextual text ads that appear during a search.
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NEW YORK -- General Electric Co. and Pearson PLC may challenge News Corp.'s $5 billion bid for Dow Jones &amp; Co. with a plan that could let Dow Jones's controlling family to keep an interest in the company, the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal reported on their websites yesterday.
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Dow Jones & Co Inc.&#39;s board of  directors said on Thursday that the company plans to consider  alternatives for the company, including a $5 billion bid by  Rupert Murdoch&#39;s News Corp. to buy it.
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Microsoft has approached FacebookÂ in recent weeks proposing an investment that would give Microsoft a stake of up to 5 percent in the popular social-networking company, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
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The family that controls Dow Jones &  Co. said on Thursday that it plans to meet with Rupert  Murdoch&#39;s News Corp. to discuss his $5 billion bid to buy the  company, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
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Representatives of the Bancroft  family, which controls Dow Jones & Co. Inc. , plan to  meet with News Corp. (NWSa.N) chief Rupert Murdoch on Monday to  discuss his $5 billion bid for the company, The Wall Street  Journal reported on its Web site Friday, citing sources  familiar with the matter.
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Financial Times publisher Pearson Plc  is seeking partners to make a possible bid for Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones & Co. Inc. , the Journal reported on its Web site on Friday.
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Members of the Bancroft family,  which controls Dow Jones & Co. Inc. , met in Boston on  Monday to consider a $5 billion offer by Rupert Murdoch&#39;s News  Corp (NWSa.N)  for the publisher of The Wall Street  Journal.
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General Electric Co. GE.N's lagging   stock price raises the question of whether it should spin off   its NBC Universal unit, Barron's reported in its September 11   edition.
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Dow Jones & Co.&#39;s  board and  Rupert Murdoch&#39;s News Corp. (NWSa.N) have completed talks on a  $5 billion buyout of Dow Jones and are expected to announce a  deal next week, London&#39;s The Business weekly magazine reported  on Friday.
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A media executive who helped purchase  the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News last  year could be interested in joining a group to acquire Dow  Jones & Co., the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
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Yahoo Inc's  board met by  telephone on Friday and discussed strategy for getting  Microsoft Corp  to raise its $42 billion offer for the  company and the possibility of hiring Google Inc to run Yahoo's  search, the Wall Street Journal said.
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Yahoo&#39;s board of directors plans to reject&#160;Microsoft&#39;s unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid,&#160;The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing as its source &quot;a person familiar with the situation.&quot;According to the report, the source said the Yahoo board has determined that the $31-per-share offer &quot;massively&#160;undervalues&quot; the online services company. In addition, Microsoft&#39;s buyout bid doesn&#39;t take into consideration the business risks that Yahoo would be taking if it entered into an agreement that in the end might not be approved by government regulators, the source told the Journal.According to the Journal, Yahoo&#39;s board intends to send Microsoft a letter on Monday, detailing its position.A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment on the report today. &quot;We are not providing details on the board&#39;s review process,&quot; she wrote. &quot;Yahoo&#39;s board is carefully and thoroughly evaluating the Microsoft proposal in the context of all of the company&#39;s strategic alternatives, and will pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.&quot;Microsoft, which announced its offer for Yahoo on Feb. 1, couldn&#39;t be reached for comment today. The offer is a combined cash-and-stock deal; in announcing the bid, Microsoft said Yahoo shareholders could choose to receive either cash or Microsoft stock, although it added that the total consideration would be equally split between the two forms of payment.Yesterday, published reports said that Yahoo&#39;s board was meeting to discuss the offer.Yahoo is still evaluating other options,&#160;including a search advertising partnership with Google, according to today&#39;s report by the Journal. It also may still be open to a longer negotiation with Microsoft: The Journal said it was told by the source that Yahoo would be unlikely to consider any offers below $40 per share.If so, that would require Microsoft to raise its original offer by at least 29 percent, or about $13 billion. In other words, the cost for Microsoft to become a more credible rival to Google in the search and online advertising markets could start at about $57.6 billion.Google has been doing what it can to scuttle the Microsoft takeover bid, including playing the antitrust card by asking, in a blog post by one of its executives last Monday, whether Microsoft might &quot;attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC?&quot;Microsoft quickly shot back, issuing a statement saying that a combination of it and Yahoo merger would &quot;create a more competitive marketplace.&quot;(Eric Lai contributed to this story.)Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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Nasdaq Stock Market Inc  has  given potential suitors until the end of the week to express  interest in its 31 percent stake in the London Stock Exchange  Group Plc  but has not yet received any offers, the Wall  Street Journal reported.
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Microsoft Corp. has approached Facebook Inc. in recent weeks proposing an investment that would give Microsoft a 5% stake in the popular social-networking company, The Wall Street Journal reported.