Microhoo

A year ago Sunday, on February 1, 2008, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told the world his company wanted to buy Yahoo.

Despite months of discussions, the deal never materialized, distressing many Yahoo shareholders and hastening Yahoo's replacement of CEO Jerry Yang with Carol Bartz. But what if Yang had gotten up on the other side of the bed one day a year ago and led his company to accept the offer?

It's impossible to know what would have happened, of course. But an exercise in speculation can be illuminating, as Philip K. Dick showed with The Man In The High Castle, … Read more

Carol Bartz, Yahoo's brand-new CEO, revealed her first public assessment of embattled Yahoo on Tuesday, arguing the company is stronger as a whole than as the sum of its parts.

"This is a fantastic Internet property, and it doesn't deserve everybody trying to pick it and pull it apart," Bartz said in a conference call after Yahoo reported mixed fourth-quarter results. Looking at statistics such as how many people use Yahoo, how long they stay on the site, and how they value its properties, she said, "This is not a company that needs to be … Read more

One Yelper gets sued for a negative review he wrote about a business. Reporter Elinor Mills stops by the podcast studio to talk about the case and whether it could have a chilling effect on community review sites. Also in this podcast: Yahoo takeover talk returns in the new year; Intel revenue drops by $2 billion; and Facebook reaches a new milestone.

Today's stories:

Complete CES coverage

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Zuckerberg: New year, 150 million Facebook users

LG pushes ahead while consumers hold back

Toshiba expands its portable storage

Windows 7 beta: First impressions… Read more

A major Yahoo shareholder is reportedly pushing for the company to renew discussion with Microsoft for a deal over its search business, CNBC reported Wednesday.

Ivory Investment Management, a hedge fund based in Los Angeles that owns 1.5 percent of Yahoo, is expected to release a letter Wednesday outlining its plan, which could result in as much as $15 billion from Microsoft, CNBC said.

Officials from Ivory could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Microsoft-Yahoo saga has been a long one. Last month, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer finally said that the company was "done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo,&… Read more

Microsoft is indeed hiring former Yahoo executive Qi Lu to run its online services business, but in the process, it is also losing one of its own top advertising executives.

In its announcement of Lu as the president of Microsoft's online services group, Microsoft said that Brian McAndrews, former CEO of Aquantive, would be leaving Microsoft. McAndrews was seen as the top internal candidate for the post, which came open when Kevin Johnson left to become CEO of Juniper Networks.

Lu will start at Microsoft on January 5 and will report to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft said.

"I am … Read more

Microsoft's efforts to acquire one Yahoo employee at a time appear to be working.

As has been rumored for a while now, former Yahoo search executive Qi Lu is expected to be named head of Microsoft's online efforts, according to a report on All Things D.

All Things D's Kara Swisher says the announcement could come as early as Monday, though some details remain to be worked out, such as whether Lu, whose experience is largely on the technical side, would be paired with one of Microsoft's business executives.

Former Aquantive CEO Brian McAndrews was considered … Read more

Billionaire investor-activist Carl Icahn opposes selling just a portion of Yahoo, telling CNBC on Wednesday that he believes the company's stock in undervalued.

"I don't think there is very much to having a partial bid for the company, at least as a large shareholder," Icahn said.

Icahn, who is on Yahoo's board of directors, made the statement while addressing rumors that former AOL Chief Executive Jonathan Miller is trying to raise money to acquire all or a part of the Internet pioneer. Miller reportedly believes he can do a deal worth about $20 to $22 … Read more

It is widely known that Google pulled the plug on the search advertising deal with Yahoo only because it appeared that it would face a regulatory challenge. However, it emerged on Wednesday just how close the company came to facing an antitrust suit from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Sandy Litvack, the lawyer hired by the Justice Department to look into the search advertising pact between Google and Yahoo, said in an interview with American Lawyer's AmLaw Daily that the government had a suit ready and was just three hours away from filing it.

"We were going … Read more

Yahoo's stock rose 8 percent to $11.64 Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal reported former AOL Chief Executive Jonathan Miller is trying to raise money to acquire all or a part of the Internet pioneer.

Miller believes he can do a deal worth about $20 to $22 per share, according to the report, which cited unnamed sources. Those sources said Miller is trying to raise money from private equity investors and sovereign wealth funds.

A Times of London report over the weekend also said Miller was working on a deal, but that report limited the scope to Yahoo'… Read more