CBS is acquiring CNET for $1.8 billion in cash. The purchase price comes to $11.50 per share, representing a 44.6 percent premium over last night’s closing price of $7.95. This is that big acquisition we’ve been waiting for from Quincy Smith’s CBS Interactive — it appears that this represents a nice profit for them. The deal was approved unanimously by the CNET board and is expected to close in Q3. Release.
CNET's influence may be declining, and as far as finances go, the company's 27-month slide can't be ignored. Also, $1.8...
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Microsoft is withdrawing its offer for Yahoo after talks between the two companies broke down on Saturday. Should investors sue or back Yang?
Microsoft hiked its offer to $33 a share, but Yahoo was holding out for $37 a share, the source said. The two sides met face to face again Saturday, but remained far apart.
Although price was a key issue, Microsoft also had strategic concerns and saw it as unlikely to achieve a friendly integration process. According to a source close to Microsoft, Yahoo founder and CEO Jerry Yang had "unrealistic...
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Google is launching Google App Engine , a suite of free services for developers which willl compete squarely with offerings Amazon already provides.
.Servers: Amazon's = EC2; Google's = Python
.Database: Amazon's = Simple DB; Google's = BigTable
.Storage: Amazon's = S3; Google's = GFS.
Google's goal is to make it easy to get started with a new Web application, and then make it easy to scale when that application reaches the point where it's receiving significant traffic and has millions of users, Google said in its new App Engine...
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In this ultimatum Microsoft makes a compelling case that Yahoo's board is violating its fiduciary duty to shareholders by not even engaging with Microsoft. This, combined with the threat of a bid cut, will likely prompt Yahoo shareholders to turn up the heat on Yahoo's board and management. It will also likely prompt Yahoo's board to do some real soul-searching, in which the directors ask themselves again whether they really want to continue down this path.
Given Microsoft's clear warning and advance notice of a bid cut, Yahoo's board is...
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In the first sizable layoffs in its history, Google is cutting about 300 jobs from the American operations of DoubleClick, the advertising technology company that it acquired recently, according to a person with direct knowledge of Google’s plans.
The cuts represent about a quarter of DoubleClick’s American work force of about 1,200. The company has about 1,500 employees worldwide, and the chief executive of Google, Eric E. Schmidt, has suggested that job cuts would also affect DoubleClick’s overseas operations at a later...
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Yahoo said on Tuesday that it supports OpenSocial; a protocol to develop applications for social networks and will help create a joint foundation to keep it alive.
Google launched its OpenSocial network in November to lure developers already creating popular Web applications on social networks like Facebook.
Yahoo, Google and News Corp-owned MySpace said on Tuesday they will create the OpenSocial Foundation to maintain a neutral, community-governed forum for developing applications. It will be set up as a non-profit entity, with assets...
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The Department of Justice's Antitrust Division says that after "thorough and careful review", it's determined that allowing the two satellite radio companies to merge "is not likely to harm consumers." The deciding factor appeared to be the proprietary hardware needed to receive both XM and Sirius; since consumers who shell out aren't likely to switch, the DOJ doesn't think the marketplace is all that competitive to begin with, which makes the impact of a merger relatively small. In fact, the DOJ says the merger could actually benefit...
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