11.30.08
Microsoft Hijacked Yahoo! from the Inside (Updated)
“You don’t need to buy the company, just destroy them and then take their business.”
–Duncan ‘Dragons Den’ Bannatyne
In this latest chapter, there are negotiations for the acquisition of Yahoo’s search business. A reader of ours once again points out that a patent which acts as anti-Google kryptonite might be the motive. The patent can be found here and some analysis here: “Google’s SEC filings mention a “fully-paid, perpetual license,” but they omit the word non-revocable. Patent license terms often include non-revocable in addition to perpetual. Perpetual seems to indicate non-revocability but it really does not. It is unreasonable to expect Google’s high-powered lawyers to miss the word non-revocable, so Google’s license to the ‘361 patent is revocable.”
For background about this Yahoo! saga, see our previous coverage and analysis, which includes:
- Microsoft Fires Up Proxy War Against Yahoo as Debt Looms Over
- King of Hypocrisy(ahoo!)
- Microsoft Fight Against Yahoo Board Gets Uglier
- Microsoft’s Proxy Fight May Have Begun Weeks Ago, Quietly
- Microsoft’s Latest Ugly Tactics Against Google, Yahoo, and VMware
- As Yahoo Proxy War Looms, VMWare and Nokia Return to One’s Mind
- Microsoft Executives Penetrate Corel, Yahoo; Is Novell Next?
- What if Microsoft Owned Yahoo (and the US Government Establishments’ IT)?
- LawMedia Group May be Another Confirmed Microsoft AstroTurfing Agency
- Microsoft Executives Land Inside Microsoft Rivals
- Update on the Microsoft/Yahoo Situation: Google-Yahoo Alliance?
- Microsoft: 800 lb. Guerrilla
- Who’s Bugging Google and Apple? (Updatedx2)
- Video: Bloomberg on Yahoo/Google/Microsoft
- Eye on Microsoft: Windows Under Attack from Critics, Cyber Criminals; Yahoo! Besieged by Microsoft
- The Microsoft-Influenced US Regulators Wrong on Yahoo!
There is a lot more in the posts above (including evidence of control being seized from the inside), so that won’t be repeated here.
It was probably predictable. This type of deal was coming following a lot of agitation from Microsoft and ‘injection’ of its own people into Yahoo. Here is another lost boss for Yahoo (from Friday).
Coppel will stay for the handover to his replacement and leave the company in the first quarter of 2009.
Sue Decker, president of Yahoo! Inc, said, “The appointment of Rich Riley represents the next phase in the evolution of our European and Canadian businesses, enabling us to build on the great foundations laid by Toby Coppel.
Microsoft must be aiming at overthrowing the opposition from Yahoo and taking control from the inside rather than from the outside. Yang jumped in after Terry Semel had shown signs of weakness.
Speculations grew just before the American holiday began, particularly because Icahn, whom Microsoft communicates with and probably uses in what’s known as a “proxy battle”, made his move.
Talks with Microsoft are rumoured to be still going on - possibly just for its search business. And presumably Steve Ballmer is offering a lot less than $33 a share.
Yang’s supposed preferred response, an ad deal with Google, has also fallen through.
Here is MarketWatch’s report about it.
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Icahn purchased roughly 6.8 million shares in Yahoo…
Lastly, from the Los Angeles Times: Yahoo stock rallies after Carl Icahn increases stake
The company’s stock surged 93 cents, or nearly 9%, to $11.51 in the shortened trading session after Icahn, a Yahoo board member who has been pushing a strategy shift or a sale to Microsoft Corp., said he had bought about 6.8 million shares.
There are some other new sightings of Microsoft/Yahoo.
All in all, this has been a brutal and despicable display of power. Some of the moves involved should be illegal and considered white-collar crime. █
Update: that original report is being challenged and even refuted now.
A report in the Sunday Times that Microsoft Inc is in talks with Yahoo Inc to buy the U.S. internet company’s online search business for $20 billion is “total fiction,” according to a key executive cited by an influential U.S. blog.
The Sunday Times, which did not cite its sources, said the proposal under discussion involves a complex transaction that would see the U.S. software giant support a new management team to take control of Yahoo.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
Needs Sunlight said,
November 30, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Keep in mind that M$ is borrowing for the bids *and* that many of the prices don’t include cash, but stock papers instead. Count only the cash in the discussions, not funnymoney.
Needs Sunlight said,
November 30, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Keep in mind that M$ is borrowing for the bids *and* that many of the prices don’t include cash, but stock papers instead. Count only the cash in the discussions, not funnymoney. (That may be worth annotating in each of the quotes as well, when dollar values are mentioned.)
Doug said,
November 30, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Microsoft/Yahoo deal is ‘total fiction’ ..
“Rumors of Microsoft buying all of Yahoo have popped up regularly since it abandoned its failed takeover bid, all of which have been untrue”
“That’s not to say there will not be some search deal between Yahoo and Microsoft, which seems more than likely at some point.”
So, it’s true and not true, at the same time ..
http://kara.allthingsd.com/20081129/total-fiction-there-is-no-20-billion-microsoft-deal-to-buy-yahoo-search/
Doug said,
November 30, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Actually that quote is from one of the clients, as quoted to him ..
“instead of buying a business, its much better to undercut that business put them out of business and then mop up their business anyway”
http://snipurl.com/6yp35 25:40 ..
Needs Sunlight said,
November 30, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Keep in mind both that M$ is borrowing for the bids *and* that many of the prices don’t include cash, but stock papers instead. Count only the cash in the discussions, not funny-money. (The actually cash may be worth annotating in each of the quotes as well, when dollar values are mentioned.)
Roy Schestowitz said,
November 30, 2008 at 3:36 pm
That’s a cherry on the cake. Even without any slice of Yahoo they drive into a debt of $6bn the last time I checked the numberw. Even Apple is wealthier (counting by liquid assets).
Roy Schestowitz said,
November 30, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Doug,
I reckon it’s inevitable. Carl and his two buddies don’t sit there on the Board of Directors for leisure. Carl does not even attend important meetings. He’s there to stuff the ballot, literally or metaphorically at times. He talks to Microsoft, and vice versa. Meanwhile, Microsoft execs are entering Yahoo! while resistors like Yang are pressured out. Put 2 and 2 together.