Chris Crocker is back

Chris Crocker is back, when Britney needs him the most.

Microsoft bids $45 billion for Yahoo

Microsoft Corp. made an unsolicited $44.6 billion cash and stock bid for Yahoo on Friday, a deal that could shake up the competitive and lucrative market for Internet search.

The deal would pay Yahoo shareholders $31 a share, which represents a 62% premium from where Yahoo stock closed on Thursday.

Shares of Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) shot up 50% at the start of trading Friday, while shares of Dow component Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) tumbled about 5%.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, called the move the "next major milestone" for the software giant.

"We are very, very confident this is the right path for Microsoft and for Yahoo," he said.

Microsoft hopes to close the deal by the end of the year. Ballmer said that Microsoft has been in "off and on" talks with Yahoo for 18 months and said he called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang Thursday night to tell him the bid was coming.

A Microsoft-Yahoo combination would create a powerful number two player in the online search business, which Google commands. The leading search engine reigns over 58.4% of the U.S. search market, while Yahoo has 22.9% and Microsoft's share is just 9.8%, according to comScore, a research firm that tracks Internet traffic.

Microsoft made the bid early Friday. In a statement, the company said the offer allows Yahoo shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the software giant's offer consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock.

In a statement, Yahoo acknowledged receipt of the offer and said its board would evaluate the proposal "carefully and promptly."

Both Microsoft and Yahoo have fallen far behind rival Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) in the lucrative field of Internet search. Yahoo's earnings and share of the online search market have badly trailed Google.

In a letter it sent to Yahoo's board of directors, Microsoft disclosed it had explored a Microsoft-Yahoo deal a year earlier, only to be rebuffed by Yahoo, which said at that time it was confident of the "potential upside" for Yahoo from operational changes it planned.

"A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved," said Ballmer.

On Thursday, former Yahoo CEO and current Chairman Terry Semel, who opposed an earlier approach Microsoft made last year, resigned from the Yahoo board.

Buzzfuse- Marketing for your content

We are taught in school that hard work is necessary for success. But in today's world,especially in the online world, marketing is more important. Buzzfuse is a service which lets you market your blog,song,photos. Buzzfuse has managed to increase traffic to my post on margin trading by 20% in an hour. In Feb 2008,$3500 will be distributed among top 100 buzzing items.
There is a bonus of $500 to each best blog post, song and picture. Buzzfuse is primarily aimed at helping content creators widen their audience and deepen the interaction with their audience. As such it's primarily a marketing tool. Buzzfuse also offers consumers free access to the best content within their system, matched to the personal preferences. Currently, Buzzfuse shares 100% of relevant ad-revenue back to premium users.


This post is sponsored by payperpost

Google must buy PayPerPlay to increase profits

There were signs of a slowdown at Google after it reported disappointing profits in its most recent quarter.
Google's profits were up 17% to $1.21bn (£608m) for the three months to the end of December.
Google's shares have fallen more than 18% so far this year on concerns that the slowing US economy will cause advertisers to cut back on spending.

Google's main source of income is through Adwords. Clicks generated on it PPC network Adsense bolsters it's profits. But lately, Adwords advertisers have been cutting ad spend due to various reasons. The CPC has also reduced. In this situation Google has to look at various alternative methods of advertising. Last year it bought digital advertising company DOUBLECLICK to increase profits. Doubleclick has the best solutions for banner advertising. Now greatness of Google's advertising is that even small advertiser can advertise and get good result. But, due to this big advertisers who spend big do not stand out.
Google should take over PayPerPlay Media. It is a unique audio ads concept which is contextual as Adsense. Unfortunately, PayPerPlay Media does not have the technology or the innovative power of Google to get huge profits. Advertisers spend huge on TV to capture audience. The super bowl is one event where ads spending rockets moon-high!! Youtube is one such part of Google that it can match Super Bowl. It's top videos has captured more eyeballs than Super Bowl. And with Google present in almost all major countries,it can easily deliver regional language audio ads which PayPerPlay media cannot offer(at least soon). Google can easily help advertisers target top sites like Youtube,orkut,etc and charge a premium. This will not only help advertisers get good results but also will reduce their unnecessary spending as small sites can be avoided if they want.
Also Adsense publishers will get even more ways to monetize their site.

Google profits disappoint market

There were signs of a slowdown at Google after it reported disappointing profits in its most recent quarter.

Google's profits were up 17% to $1.21bn (£608m) for the three months to the end of December.

Some analysts had been hoping for stronger profit growth and its shares fell sharply in after hours trading.

Google's shares have fallen more than 18% so far this year on concerns that the slowing US economy will cause advertisers to cut back on spending.

Investors have become used to Google reporting extremely strong profit growth.

Analysts say the latest quarter shows that even Google is not immune to an economic slowdown in the US.

As the US slowdown fear looms large it is better to do margin trading and book profits to buy stocks for long term when price of stocks reduce further.