Yahoo! in Talks With AOL
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: yahoo, aol, icahn | Themes: Business
Yahoo’s new board members have decided that they actually want to get warm and fuzzy with AOL.
According to the Financial Times, Yahoo will begin talks with Ted Turner’s multi-media kingdom (Time Warner) to discuss the future of its AOL division. Earlier this year, the two companies began negotiations to merge both internet businesses. However, those talks eventually stalled.
It’s no secret that Yahoo has been negotiating with everyone under the sun, searching for ways to deflect Microsoft’s unsolicited attack. With the beast back in the cave and pondering over other prey, now it seems that the search-engine giant has set its loving eyes on the befallen AOL after all.
But in 2008, AOL has been reduced to a meager "division" rather than the internet mammoth it once was in the late 90’s / early 2000’s. Time Warner’s CEO Jeff Bewkes said that the company will split AOL’s access and media units into separate entities next year, and there’s even talks about closing AOL altogether. The staggering internet service lost 604,000 subscribers in the 2nd quarter of 2008 alone, with its operating income dropping down 36 precent.
Yahoo’s decision to discuss AOL with Time Warner comes as the result of an internal conflict within the Yahoo boardroom itself. Now with activist investor Carl Icahn and his two allies seated at the table, the once defunct talks with Time Warner now press on. If both companies can strike a deal, will Yahoo users be stricken down by the "You’ve Got Mail!" sound byte? Only time will tell.
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Is Yahoo the next company to seek bailout?
Microsoft tried really hard to bail them out, and they refused.
Yahoo hooking up with f'n AOL?! That's like Anna Nicole Smith marrying that old rich guy that she knows was getting ready to die. Not a bad plan.
Dear Mr. Yang,
Just like to say you were right when you said MS did not offer fair value for Yahoo with the initial offer at $33/share.
As a result we would like to modify our bid to $25/share - should we send the offer to you or to Mr Icahn directly to save some time?
Sincerely,
Mr. Gates
P.S.: thanks for saving me billions - I'll pick up lunch next time! Good luck at the next board meeting.
P.P.S.: We still have the form letter rejection of our past bid that was prepared months in advance prior to our first offer (funny how that was, huh? almost as if you really never considered our offer?). If you'd like you can just say refer to previous rejection regardless of terms proposed or what is right for your stockholders who are the ACTUAL OWNERS of the company you are running into the ground.
Ahhh the losers unite. Thank God, maybe this way they will both drive each other to extinction, and leaner, more nimble players will fill the gaps they have left. Sucks for users that are so ingrained in either one or the other though...
Not saying the scary relentless growth of Google (which I think will own the planet Earth in a hundred years or so) or the enormous monolopistic coffers of Microsoft are the answer, but they certainly are more attractive given the competition. Who knows maybe even something useful will come out of this clusterf*ck.
Dear Mr. Yang,Just like to say you were right when you said MS did not offer fair value for Yahoo with the initial offer at $33/share. As a result we would like to modify our bid to $25/share - should we send the offer to you or to Mr Icahn directly to save some time? Sincerely,Mr. GatesP.S.: thanks for saving me billions - I'll pick up lunch next time! Good luck at the next board meeting.P.P.S.: We still have the form letter rejection of our past bid that was prepared months in advance prior to our first offer (funny how that was, huh? almost as if you really never considered our offer?). If you'd like you can just say refer to previous rejection regardless of terms proposed or what is right for your stockholders who are the ACTUAL OWNERS of the company you are running into the ground.
QFT, this post pwns
[citation][nom]SuckRaven[/nom]Sucks for users that are so ingrained in either one or the other though...
Yeah, I'm one of those users deeply ingrained in Yahoo! services. I think they'll stay afloat and pull through, I just don't know if AOL is the answer.