Microsoft to authorize Yahoo proxy battle: report
69584
Microsoft Corp will authorize a proxy  battle for Yahoo Inc this week to convince the Web company's  shareholders to agree on a takeover deal that the Yahoo board  so far has rejected, the New York Times' DealBook blog said on  Tuesday.
547841
Microsoft Corp. is getting ready to take its bid for Yahoo right to the Web portal's shareholders, even as analysts wait for a higher offer.
748851
InfoWorld - Yahoo may team up with News Corp. to fend offÂ Microsoft's bid to buy the struggling Web portal, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday.
135980
Microsoft says its billion-dollar offer to purchase Yahoo is "fair" and suggested that it may pursue a hostile takeover of the Internet company.
64971
Microsoft Corp  will authorize  a proxy battle for Yahoo Inc  this week to convince the  Web company's shareholders to agree on a takeover deal that the  Yahoo board so far has rejected, the New York Times' DealBook  blog said on Tuesday.
94244
Yahoo said yesterday that it would offer severance packages to employees affected by any change in control of the company as analysts predicted that Microsoft would wage a proxy battle rather than increase the value of its takeover bid.
466078
Privacy groups are promising a fight before U.S. regulatory agencies if&#160;Microsoft&#39;s offer to buy Yahoo&#160;for $44.6 billion is accepted, and the deal could face significant hurdles in Europe as well.Microsoft announced that it&#160;sent an offer to Yahoo&#39;s board of directors&#160;on Thursday, going public with the news Friday morning. Immediately, the executive directors of the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said the acquisition would raise serious privacy concerns.CDD will press the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and Congress to &quot;scrutinize this deal and impose the needed safeguards for it -- and the industry,&quot; said Jeffrey Chester, CDD&#39;s executive director. CDD and EPIC tried to stop Google&#39;s proposed acquisition of online ad service DoubleClick on privacy grounds before the FTC last year, but the FTC approved the deal in December.The Microsoft-Yahoo deal, if consummated, would &quot;create a powerful interactive Internet duopoly in online media,&quot; Chester said. &quot;Google and Microsoft will have inordinate power to shape the online communications marketplace, including journalism, entertainment and advertising. There are consequences to democratic societies everywhere, as two digital gatekeepers are likely to control how the Internet and other interactive media evolve.&quot;The proposed deal also underscores a need for new laws or regulations that protect consumer data, Chester added. &quot;In an era when individuals are increasingly conducting their personal, social and political lives online, the corporations that control the digital experience will have a far-reaching influence over every aspect of society,&quot; he said. &quot;Consumers will be more vulnerable to having their personal information become the property of the GoogleClick&#39;s and Microhoo&#39;s.&quot;But the DOJ and FTC may have little grounds to oppose a Microsoft/Yahoo merger, said Professor Keith Hylton, who specializes in antitrust issues at the Boston University law school. While Microsoft and Yahoo compete in some areas, Microsoft could argue this a &quot;vertical&quot; merger that largely expands its online services, but largely doesn&#39;t eliminate competition, he said.&quot;I think Microsoft is trying to ramp up in the online services/online ad revenue business,&quot; Hylton said. &quot;Microsoft is a small player in that area, and Google is a big player. This is a merger of two firms trying to compete against a big monster out there -- Google.&quot;But the deal could face more hurdles in Europe. If the deal allows Microsoft to take components of Windows online, and &quot;in the process increases Microsoft&#39;s dominance of the market for PC operating systems,&quot; then the European Commission would have to prohibit the deal, said an antitrust lawyer in Europe who asked not to be identified.European Union merger rules prohibit dominant companies from increasing their dominance, the lawyer said.The combined company would likely have sell off an instant-messaging service, added a European Commission official familiar with the competition department. &quot;I can&#39;t see how Microsoft/Yahoo would be allowed to keep both instant-messaging services,&quot; said the official, who also asked not to be identified.Microsoft campaigned for federal regulators to block the Google-DoubleClick deal, partly on antitrust grounds. But Google argued the acquisition would join two companies operating in different online markets.This week, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia extended antitrust scrutiny of Microsoft for two years. But the U.S. government&#39;s antitrust case against Microsoft was based on its desktop and server operating systems, not online services. If anything, the old antitrust case could help Microsoft make the case for approval of its acquisition of Yahoo, Hylton said.&quot;I assume Microsoft people can say, &#39;Look, we&#39;re already under a microscope, doesn&#39;t this suggest we&#39;re less likely to do anticompetitive things?&#39;&quot; Hylton said.But a consolidating online market means users will have their data held by a small number of companies, said Professor Joseph Turow, at University of Pennsylvania school of communication.&quot;Microsoft&#39;s decision to buy Yahoo is a direct result of the decision by the FTC to allow Google to purchase DoubleClick,&quot; he said. &quot;It is further evidence that despite the appearance of unlimited choice in the new media environment, people&#39;s activities will be tracked and shaped by a very small number of companies who care far more about surveillance and targeted advertising than the public interest.&quot;The public needs to demand privacy scrutiny in the proposed deal, he said. &quot;The federal government, which should have been the guardian of the public interest, has dropped the ball.&quot;(Additional reporting by Paul Meller in Brussels.)
298896
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.
268354
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;
742058
Yahoo and Microsoft would still be the underdog in the increasingly important business of Web search if Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo is approved by regulators and Yahoo shareholders.
416331
Yahoo Inc's (YHOO.O) board met by telephone on Friday and discussed strategy for getting Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) 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.
332662
The Microsft-Yahoo battle continued Monday with some unexpected twists. Microsoft indicated it will keep fighting even as Yahoo's board raised the price and reports suggested Yahoo is trying to restart merger talks with AOL.
635588
Yahoo Inc.'s board will reject Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion takeover bid after concluding the unsolicited offer undervalues the slumping Internet pioneer, a person familiar with the situation said Saturday.
20535
Microsoft Corp plans to invest heavily in Web search to competes against Google Inc, even if it fails to acquire Yahoo Inc, the company's chairman Bill Gates said on Monday.
261525
Microsoft Corp. is offering $44.6 billion in cash and stock for search engine operator Yahoo Inc. in a move to boost its competitive edge in the online services market
263624
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.
116650
Google has made its first official comments on&#160;Microsoft&#39;s proposed acquisition of Yahoo&#160;saying that the deal raises &quot;troubling questions&quot; and that the underlying principles of the Internet stand to be tested by the proposed deal.The statement refers several times to Microsoft&#39;s past regulatory transgressions and indicates that Google could be preparing to fight the deal -- if it is accepted by Yahoo -- by pushing regulators to disallow it.&quot;Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC?,&quot; asked David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer at Google in a statement posted on the corporate blog on Sunday.Drummond also asks if an acquisition could allow Microsoft to &quot;extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet?&quot; and to &quot; take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors&#39; email, IM, and web-based services?&quot;A report late Sunday in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal said Google CEO Eric Schmidt called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang on Friday to offer help to the rival in thwarting the bid. The newspaper, which quoted people familiar with the matter, didn&#39;t provide details of the telephone call.Google has something to fear from a combined Microsoft and Yahoo. The proposed deal, which was announced on Friday and has Microsoft offering $44.6 billion for Yahoo, would combine the number two and three search engines. The two companies are also leaders in the areas of Web mail and instant messaging so a merger would provide stronger competition for Google in those areas.But Google has a massive lead in search and the deal wouldn&#39;t necessarily lead to an improvement in search results, so Microsoft and Yahoo would still face a challenge to surpass Google&#39;s current dominance in this part of the market.The Google statement got a quick response from Microsoft, which said a combination of the two companies would benefit Internet users by establishing a stronger number two competitor to Google.&quot;The alternative scenarios only lead to less competition on the Internet,&quot; said Microsoft&#39;s top-lawyer, General Counsel Brad Smith, in a statement.&quot;Microsoft is committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy on the Internet. We believe that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will advance these goals,&quot; Smith said.A merged company would still only account for about 30 percent of the search queries run in the U.S. and about 10 percent in Europe, he said.