Hamilton can better Schumi

With four podium finishes Lewis has made it it clear that he in the coming years will be a force to reckon in Formula 1 . I think he has all the talent require to equal if not better most of Michael Schumacher's records .

Maya shifts 12 officers, suspends 3

Mayawati wielded the axe with breakneck speed immediately after being sworn in as the new Chief Minister on Sunday as she transferred 12 officers and suspended two others.


Beginning her new stint in her trademark style, Mayawati also effecting a major administrative reshuffling in her secretariat. Into her fourth term as CM, the BSP leader also created the post of a Cabinet Secretary and appointed her principal secretaries.


source

Microsoft Should Buy Yahoo

In the battle of online search, Microsoft is again courting Yahoo, according to media reports
Microsoft should acquire Yahoo! in order to fend off Google and solidify the software giant's Internet presence, according to a Friday report by Merrill Lynch.

“The possible acquisition of Yahoo would be a strategic positive in our view,” said Justin Post, a Merrill Lynch analyst and author of the report.

Post said that Microsoft’s goal is to make advertising a significant new revenue stream, possibly even larger than the core operating system business, and buying Yahoo! would be a large step in that direction..

“A Yahoo/MSN-Microsoft combination would have garnered approximately 41% share in the US of search queries [in April] versus Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) with 44%,” Post said.

Google is already venturing into Microsoft’s territory with the recent launch of their spreadsheet and their partnership with Adobe Systems (nasdaq: ADBE - news - people ), Post said.

Yahoo! would be Microsoft's best prospect from a strategic standpoint, according to Post, because Bill Gates and company could thereby eliminate a top competitor and because Microsoft’s search and advertising focus on personal computers, mobile dives and video games fits well with Yahoo!’s business strategy.

The latter company’s large presence in Japan would also bolster Microsoft’s business platform in Asia, the analyst said.

A good second option, however, could be eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ), he added.

“Worse case, an acquisition of eBay or Yahoo! could cost Microsoft $5 a share if completely unsuccessful,” Post said. “However, Google’s potential encroachment on Microsoft’s core software market, using Internet profitability to fund software investment, represents a long-term business risk.”


In a way, they’re two tech titans that could badly use each other: Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO), both hobbled by an 800-pound gorilla that has come to dominate search.

According to newspaper reports May 4, Microsoft has asked Yahoo to enter formal negotiations for an acquisition that could be worth $50 billion. Yahoo's market capitalization was about $38 billion at the close of trading May 3.

Reports of the deal sent Yahoo shares jumping 17% in premarket trading, while Microsoft slipped 1.5%.

The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post reported Friday that executives of the two companies are in early-stage discussions of a merger or some other kind of collaboration, although Microsoft officials would prefer to acquire the company outright. The companies held similar discussions a year ago, but no deal came to fruition, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the talks.

Still, any deal is far from certain, the reports noted.

Among bloggers on the Net, there is plenty of skepticism about a merger because of the size of the deal, the differences in culture, the abundance of executive egos, and the redundancies in technology. "If Microsoft buys Yahoo, Microsoft should immediately spin the Yahoo-MSN business out as a separate company," says Henry Blodget, the one-time analyst at Merrill Lynch (ML), who now writes the Internet Outsider blog. "If it doesn't, both Yahoo and MSN will die." (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/4/07, "Yahoo, MSN "Will Die"").

Microsoft is feeling increasing pressure to compete with Google (GOOG), which plans to beef up its portfolio with a $3.1 billion purchase of online advertising company DoubleClick.

Microsoft currently trails both Yahoo and Google in the lucrative and growing business of Web search. For its part, Yahoo has stumbled in recent years with a lack of strategic focus and laggardly technology at a time when Google has been able to monetize its search prowess to a degree that has startled investors.

Google won a search advertising deal with AOL (TWX) in 2005 that the Post said Microsoft wanted. In addition, Google has developed an array of Web-based software that, while not as robust as the tools in Microsoft’s suite of Office products, presents a severe future threat.

The Post story said Microsoft and Yahoo have held informal talks over the years and said Microsoft's latest approach to Yahoo signals increased urgency.

Earlier this week, Yahoo said it would buy 80 percent of advertising exchange Right Media for $680 million, increasing its stake in that company to full control.

Yahoo shares surged nearly $5, or 17%, to $32.96 at midday trading, near its 52-week high of $34. Shares of Microsoft fell 1.5% to $30.51

AOL launches India-specific English portal

New York, Apr 26: AOL expanded to India Thursday with its first portal targeting Asia's growing online population.

Although AOL has been dropping its Internet access businesses around the world, it has been making a bigger push at delivering content through free Web sites in hopes of boosting advertising opportunities. AOL expanded its portal audiences in Europe as part of deals to sell off its access businesses there.

The Indian portal, launched Thursday at http://aol.in, is in English. Although only a small fraction of India's population can speak it, English has become a common language in business and government circles in a country with a slew of spoken tongues.

The AOL site offers free e-mail accounts, search services powered by minority owner Google Inc., and news and entertainment channels targeting Bollywood, cricket and other areas of interest to India's population.

"India is one of the world's fastest-growing online markets, and our India portal will help us compete for users and advertisers in this important region," Ron Grant, AOL's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement.

Grant and other executives traveled to India's high-tech hub of Bangalore for a launch event Thursday. Bangalore is also home of AOL's new international chief, Maneesh Dhir; before, the position was based at the company's global headquarters in Dulles, Va.

Separately, AOL unveiled a 'beta' test version of a new portal for the United States. Among other things, the test AOL.com portal seeks to make gas prices and local news more easily accessible from the front page.

AOL also updated its Canadian portal, and updates to others are to come as AOL seeks to unify the user experience worldwide, while offering content of local and personal interest.

The Internet population in the United States has largely plateaued, with 70 percent of US adults now online, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

That means opportunities for growth are largely abroad. India has about 8.5 million Internet users, out of 1.1 billion people, according to government figures.

AOL also has portals for France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Austria, as well as ones in the United States targeting Latino and Chinese populations.

Google owns 5 per cent of AOL, with the rest belonging to Time Warner Inc.

Performance based payment to cricketers

BCCI decision to pay players on basis of performance will harm Indian cricket on the long run because players will become selfish . They might start plying for themselves . This system is good in case of club matches but not in international matches where patriotism is important .