In the past few weeks there has been a lot more news about the whole attempt from Microsoft to buy Yahoo. People have left, everyone and their brother has voiced their opinion on the deal, and others are even suing Yahoo for turning down the deal.

There has been so much going on, that I’m tired of hearing about it. So, this is the last I’ll be posting about it until something final happens. They’ll be plenty of other blogs and news sites covering every aspect of Microhoo.

It’s been a busy week for me, and there’s been a lot of Yahoo news going on. Rather than post about everything separately, I’ll throw it all into once nice post that way I can get on to bed (I told you The Invasion bored me!).

For whatever reason, Microsoft thought it’d be a good idea to make a bid to take over Yahoo. No one that I knew expected any government to accept the deal, and thankfully yesterday Yahoo officially rejected Microsoft. This announcement came after the rumor surfaced that Yahoo may be looking to merge into Time Warner’s fledgling AOL division. AOL-Time Warner-Yahoo? Suddenly, I liked the whole Microsoft idea better.

Not long after Yahoo dissed the company Gate’s built, Microsoft issued a press release stating that it was unfortunate that Yahoo decided to turn down an offer that would create a more effective company. I guess Microsoft’s idea of being effective is releasing crap software well past the original release date (Vista anyone?). Now it looks like Microsoft has hired a proxy firm in an attempt for a hostile takeover.

Meanwhile, Yahoo has begun to layoff some 1,000 employees. Among those out the door is Salim Ismail, who has lead Yahoo Brickhouse since early 2007. According to TechCrunch, Salim left voluntary. He’ll most likely create a small startup and get bought up by Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft. Any bets?

With all the take over talks, merger proposals, and the layoffs, you’d think that’d be enough for Yahoo. Nope, today they acquired Maven Networks for $160 million.

And that’s pretty much the gist of the Microsoft-Yahoo saga that’s gone on for the past few days. Oh yeah, Yahoo also had a couple software releases, but who cares about those right now.

Why not throw out another rumor tonight. Valleywag is reporting that Microsoft may be buying Ustream.tv for $50 million.  Microsoft may not be the only one bidding on the company.

While there is no mention of it, I think Ustream or a similar service would be a great fit for Google’s YouTube. Streaming live video could really put the you into YouTube.

According to Wired there is a rumor that Google has bought Plaxo for about $200 Million.

If this is true, I hope it gets integrated with Google Apps, specifically GMail. I’ve used Plaxo fo years, and think it is an amazing service.

Rumor is that either Google or MySpace could be looking to buy social network Bebo. Word is the deal could be anywhere between $1 and $1.5 billion.

If MySpace were to buy Bebo, it could still be a win for Google as both MySpace and Bebo use Google’s OpenSocial platform. Bebo however also supports the competing Facebook platform. Chances are either way the Facebook support would get the axe.

Of course, if Google were to end up buying Bebo it could help strengthen Google’s Orkut and maybe help it to catch on more in the US. Of course, anywhere Google can stick it’s ads will be beneficial to the company.

The biggest news to come out yesterday is that Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo. Microsoft wants Yahoo so bad, they’ve offered $44.6 Billion which is about #31 per share. No doubt, this could be good news for Yahoo which is already set to lay off about 1000 employees.

I find it amazing that Microsoft actually made this bid. Even if the shareholders for the companies agree to this, I cannot see anyway that the US and EU anti-trust lawyers would allow this. Huge company acquiring another huge company. Yeah, that has anti-trust written all over it. I’d expect Google to voice concerns.

Here are some additional articles that cover the news: Continue reading »

Sun Microsystems isn’t the only one spending money to purchase another company today. Oracle is buying BEA Systems Inc. for $8.5 Billion.

Source: AP

Sun Microsystems will spend $1,000,000,000 ($1 Billion) to buy the open source database MySQL. According to C|Net, the deal includes about $800 Million in cash to purchase the privately held stock, and about $200 Million to pick up the remaining options. As C|Net points out, there is a fairly interesting twist to all of this. Sun Microsystems has partenered with Oracle and sells support services for PostgreSQL. Both Oracle and PostgreSQL are in direct competition with MySQL. Sun says that they will continue the relationship they have with both companies.

Here’s a hot rumor. According to Reuters, shares for Logitech rose by 12% today on the rumor that Microsoft is looking to buy the company. The rumored $6 billion takeover deal would be Microsoft’s largest acquisition.

Though to the relief of gamers everywhere, Logitech board member (and largest shareholder) Daniel Borel said he had no reason to sell his 6% stake in the company. If the deal did go through, it would make the worlds largest software company the largest mouse maker.

I really cannot see Microsoft doing this. Sure, it’d be a great deal for them, but I think antitrust lawyers everywhere would have a fit with the idea. Besides, Microsoft has been partnering with Razer for several PC peripheral. It’d probably be far cheaper to by Razer. Granted, Razer doesn’t have the number of gizmos that Logitech has.

Systemax, owners of TigerDirect.com, have acquired the brand, trademark, e-commerce business, and as many as 16 retail stores from the soon to be (thankfully!) dead CompUSA. Does this mean we could be seeing some TigerDirect stores poping up in the near future?

Will it be enough to take on BestBuy, Circuit City, or Frys? One thing is for sure, they’ll have to try hard to be half as bad as CompUSA. It’ll be interesting to see what happens, though I doubt the 16 locations would include Knoxville.

Source: eWeek