Online services

Update 1 p.m. PST: Added analyst comments throughout.

While Microsoft is no Oracle when it comes to acquisitions, the company has been getting accustomed to cracking open its oversized wallet.

Historically, Microsoft has focused largely on smaller deals to acquire technology, as opposed to megadeals to buy established businesses. Microsoft is, of course, in the throes of a multibillion-dollar bid for Net pioneer Yahoo.

"It's a different type of acquisition for Microsoft," Directions on Microsoft analyst Matt Rosoff said of the Yahoo bid. "It's a new way of thinking." (Rosoff is a contributor … Read more

So that's why Bill Gates hasn't accepted my friend request.

I was beginning to wonder why he hadn't added me to his list of Facebook friends. Well, apparently I wasn't the only person that was trying to add him to their list of pals.

According to the British tabloid The Sun, Gates was getting some 8,000 requests per day. While he once spent half an hour per day on the site, he has stopped using it altogether, the paper reported.

So I guess I shouldn't feel so bad.

According to a Wall Street Journal … Read more

Microsoft is making a series of changes to its Office Live Small Business service, offering some previously paid-for services free, while adding a new charge for domain name registration after the first year.

Domain name registration will continue to be free for the first year. But each subsequent year Microsoft will charge $14.95, though it will add the ability for so-called private registration, where customers can keep their personal information out of the public Whois database. Microsoft said that those who have already signed up for Office Live will continue to have their domain name registered for free "… Read more

Yahoo's board has decided Microsoft's $31-per-share offer "massively undervalues" the company, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Yahoo is expected to formally reject Microsoft's offer, the Journal reported.

In the report, it appears Yahoo is floating the idea that it might consider an offer of at least $40 a share. I'm not in the boardroom, but all of this--the leak, the wording--sounds like more of a negotiating tactic than a final rejection.

But, if Yahoo does want to play hardball, it has bolstered its position. The report says that Yahoo has … Read more

I had to chuckle at Fake Steve Jobs' analysis of the potential of the Microsoft-Yahoo deal.

"The Borg-Yahoo merger won't work," writes Fake Steve (also known as Forbes magazine's Daniel Lyons) in a blog posting. "Here's why. It's like taking the two guys who finished second and third in a 100-yard dash and tying their legs together and asking for a rematch, believing that now they'll run faster."

Scroll down to the end and you'll get another hilarious mental picture. "Imagine a circus act in which two enormous, clumsy, … Read more

A decline in Microsoft's stock in the days since its Yahoo bid was announced could make doing the deal more expensive, Wall Street analyst-turned blogger Henry Blodget noted Wednesday.

When Microsoft announced the bid on Friday, it offered $31 a share in cash or stock. Specifically, it offered Yahoo shareholders 0.9509 Microsoft shares for each Yahoo share they own.

Right now, both the exchange ratio and the cash price are fixed, meaning Microsoft is offering $31 in cash or roughly $27 in stock. Obviously, all the shareholders would want cash, but Microsoft has already specified that the deal … Read more

Jerry Yang has already gotten calls from Steve Ballmer and Eric Schmidt, but he's having trouble filling up the rest of his five faves.

Try as Yahoo might, apparently no one wants to bid against Microsoft's bulging bank account.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night that no serious bidders have emerged to rival Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. The one party most interested in scuttling Microsoft's efforts--Google--faces uphill regulatory battles in almost any kind of partnership, alliance or investment it might want to do.

The clock is ticking. Does anyone other than Ballmer … Read more

Steve Ballmer spent plenty of time talking about Yahoo during Microsoft's just-concluded meeting with financial analysts on Monday. However, the CEO offered little news with regards to the company's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo.

He reiterated many of the things he said in announcing the deal Friday, talking about the need for scale in the business and the benefits of combining the two companies' research-and-development efforts.

Ballmer also echoed General Counsel Brad Smith's comments Sunday--that Microsoft buying Yahoo would increase competition by creating a stronger alternative to Google, while other potential options for Yahoo would ultimately … Read more

Nu-uhhh.

That's a one word summary of Microsoft's statement Sunday rebutting Google's statement earlier in the day that said Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo could raise antitrust concerns.

"The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising," Microsoft lawyer Brad Smith said in a statement. "The alternative scenarios only lead to less competition on the Internet."

Smith argues that Google already has three-quarters of the paid search market and about … Read more