The Long Tail

1 URL: www.901am.com/

Blogger: Leo Blanco

The Post: Will Yahoo say yes to Microsoft's shocking proposal?

What it says: "It's no secret Yahoo is facing a lot of problems these days. Aside from its consistently poor financial performance, Jerry Yang (Yahoo CEO) is inept in delivering upbeat, rally-the-troops speeches to audiences of investors, customers and even employees. To make matters worse, the company has announced a job cut of 5% of work force of 1,000 employees by February."

2 URL: http://blogs.zdnet.com/

Blogger: Larry Dignan

The Post: Google launches its ‘let's annoy Microsoft' plan

What it says: Dignan reports that Google is attempting disrupt Microsoft's bid for Yahoo by offering to help develop a fund to take Yahoo private. For now, he says, it appears that Google is launching a two front war. "First, Google wants to help Yahoo disrupt Microsoft. And if that effort fails Google is going to make damn sure regulators look closely at this deal. It would make total sense. And there would be a nice bonus-if Yahoo goes private the first thing the new owners would do is outsource search to Google."

3 URL: www.techcrunch.com/

Blogger: Michael Arrington

The Post: News Corp Scrambles To Bid For Yahoo

What it says: While the rumors keep on rolling about the surprise semi-hostile Microsoft bid for Yahoo, Arrington publishes sever anonymous rumors circulating around Sillicon Valley about counter bid for Yahoo from media giant News Corporation. Arrington mentions the widely reported fact that News recently offered to sell MySpace to Yahoo! in exchange for 25% of Yahoo's stock. "All of this is likely to come to nothing, though. Microsoft has probably already won this deal, simply because they aren't relying solely on spreadsheets in their valuation," Arrington says.

4 URL: http://paul.kedrosky.com/

Blogger: Paul Kedrosky

The Post: Microsoft/Yahoo: The Shorter Version

What it says Among the many posts on the Microsoft/Yahoo deal, renown tech writer Kedrosky argues that the deal will happen and that neither company can afford for it to not happen. Unlike our previous blogger Michael Arrington, Kedrosky thinks the high price Microsoft is willing to pay will halt any alternative bidders. He even argues that the deal is good for Google, in that "Two elephants mating are always good for confusing customers and helping incumbents, not to mention improving margins. You will see Google gain surplus search and advertising share as this deal comes together."