Yahoo rechaza la propuesta de Microsoft

Esta era la respuesta que yo esperaba. Es una respuesta arriesgada, pero era la que yo consideraba mejor. A ver si va bien.

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, Microsoft, Reject

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microsoft ofrece 44.600 millones de $ por Yahoo!

Hace días que la red está llena de rumores, pero hoy es realidad. Microsoft ha hecho una oferta de 44.600 millones de dólares (acciones y dinero) por Yahoo! Alucinante... qué haría yo si fuese Yahoo! Pues probablemente aceptaría, porque creo que la unión de microsoft (de quien no soy muy fan, por decir algo) y Yahoo! puede traer seria competencia a Google y a otros. Aquí está la carta de la oferta:

January 31, 2008

Board of Directors
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Attention: Roy Bostock, Chairman
Attention: Jerry Yang, Chief Executive Officer

Dear Members of the Board:

I am writing on behalf of the Board of Directors of Microsoft to make a proposal for a business combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!. Under our proposal, Microsoft would acquire all of the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 based on Microsoft’s closing share price on January 31, 2008, payable in the form of $31 in cash or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock. Microsoft would provide each Yahoo! shareholder with the ability to choose whether to receive the consideration in cash or Microsoft common stock, subject to pro-ration so that in the aggregate one-half of the Yahoo! common shares will be exchanged for shares of Microsoft common stock and one-half of the Yahoo! common shares will be converted into the right to receive cash. Our proposal is not subject to any financing condition.

Our proposal represents a 62% premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock of $19.18 on January 31, 2008. The implied premium for the operating assets of the company clearly is considerably greater when adjusted for the minority, non-controlled assets and cash. By whatever financial measure you use - EBITDA, free cash flow, operating cash flow, net income, or analyst target prices - this proposal represents a compelling value realization event for your shareholders.

We believe that Microsoft common stock represents a very attractive investment opportunity for Yahoo!’s shareholders. Microsoft has generated revenue growth of 15%, earnings growth of 26%, and a return on equity of 35% on average for the last three years. Microsoft’s share price has generated shareholder returns of 8% during the last one year period and 28% during the last three year period, significantly outperforming the S&P 500. It is our view that Microsoft has significant potential upside given the continued solid growth in our core businesses, the recent launch of Windows Vista, and other strategic initiatives.

Microsoft’s consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. In late 2006 and early 2007, we jointly explored a broad range of ways in which our two companies might work together. These discussions were based on a vision that the online businesses of Microsoft and Yahoo! should be aligned in some way to create a more effective competitor in the online marketplace. We discussed a number of alternatives ranging from commercial partnerships to a merger proposal, which you rejected. While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! that we are proposing.

In February 2007, I received a letter from your Chairman indicating the view of the Yahoo! Board that “now is not the right time from the perspective of our shareholders to enter into discussions regarding an acquisition transaction.” According to that letter, the principal reason for this view was the Yahoo! Board’s confidence in the “potential upside” if management successfully executed on a reformulated strategy based on certain operational initiatives, such as Project Panama, and a significant organizational realignment. A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved.

While online advertising growth continues, there are significant benefits of scale in advertising platform economics, in capital costs for search index build-out, and in research and development, making this a time of industry consolidation and convergence. Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers. Synergies of this combination fall into four areas:

Scale economics: This combination enables synergies related to scale economics of the advertising platform where today there is only one competitor at scale. This includes synergies across both search and non-search related advertising that will strengthen the value proposition to both advertisers and publishers. Additionally, the combination allows us to consolidate capital spending.

Expanded R&D capacity: The combined talent of our engineering resources can be focused on R&D priorities such as a single search index and single advertising platform. Together we can unleash new levels of innovation, delivering enhanced user experiences, breakthroughs in search, and new advertising platform capabilities. Many of these breakthroughs are a function of an engineering scale that today neither of our companies has on its own.

Operational efficiencies: Eliminating redundant infrastructure and duplicative operating costs will improve the financial performance of the combined entity.

Emerging user experiences: Our combined ability to focus engineering resources that drive innovation in emerging scenarios such as video, mobile services, online commerce, social media, and social platforms is greatly enhanced.

We would value the opportunity to further discuss with you how to optimize the integration of our respective businesses to create a leading global technology company with exceptional display and search advertising capabilities. You should also be aware that we intend to offer significant retention packages to your engineers, key leaders and employees across all disciplines.

We have dedicated considerable time and resources to an analysis of a potential transaction and are confident that the combination will receive all necessary regulatory approvals. We look forward to discussing this with you, and both our internal legal team and outside counsel are available to meet with your counsel at their earliest convenience.

Our proposal is subject to the negotiation of a definitive merger agreement and our having the opportunity to conduct certain limited and confirmatory due diligence. In addition, because a portion of the aggregate merger consideration would consist of Microsoft common stock, we would provide Yahoo! the opportunity to conduct appropriate limited due diligence with respect to Microsoft. We are prepared to deliver a draft merger agreement to you and begin discussions immediately.

In light of the significance of this proposal to your shareholders and ours, as well as the potential for selective disclosures, our intention is to publicly release the text of this letter tomorrow morning.

Due to the importance of these discussions and the value represented by our proposal, we expect the Yahoo! Board to engage in a full review of our proposal. My leadership team and I would be happy to make ourselves available to meet with you and your Board at your earliest convenience. Depending on the nature of your response, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.

We believe this proposal represents a unique opportunity to create significant value for Yahoo!’s shareholders and employees, and the combined company will be better positioned to provide an enhanced value proposition to users and advertisers. We hope that you and your Board share our enthusiasm, and we look forward to a prompt and favorable reply.

Sincerely yours,

/s/ Steven A. Ballmer

Steven A. Ballmer

Chief Executive Officer

Microsoft Corporation

Vía: TechCrunch

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Yahoo!, Acquisition

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Google lanza OpenSocial

Esta es la respuesta de Google a Facebook y Microsoft.

Google Launches OpenSocial to Spread Social Applications Across the Web

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- November 1, 2007 – Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the release of OpenSocial -- a set of common APIs for building social applications across the web -- for developers of social applications and websites that want to add social features. OpenSocial will unleash more powerful and pervasive social capabilities for the web, empowering developers to build far-reaching applications that users can enjoy regardless of the websites, web applications, or social networks they use. The release of OpenSocial marks the first time that multiple social networks have been made accessible under a common API to make development and distribution easier and more efficient for developers.

The proliferation of unique APIs across dozens of social websites is forcing developers to choose which ones to write applications for – and then spend their time writing separately for each. OpenSocial gives developers of social applications a single set of APIs to learn for their application to run on any OpenSocial-enabled website. By providing these simple, standards-based technologies, OpenSocial will speed innovation and bring more social features to more places across the web. Users win too: they get more interesting, engaging, or useful features faster.

"The web is fundamentally better when it's social, and we're only just starting to see what's possible when you bring social information into different contexts on the web," said XXXX. "There's a lot of innovation that will be spurred simply by creating a standard way for developers to run social applications in more places. With the input and iteration of the community, we hope OpenSocial will become a standard set of technologies for making the web social."

Learn Once, Reach Across the Web

One of the most important benefits of OpenSocial is the vast distribution network that developers will have for their applications. The sites that have already committed to supporting OpenSocial -- Website Partner A, Website Partner B, Website Partner C, etc. –- represent an audience of well over 100 million users globally. Critical for time- and resource-strapped developers is being able to "learn once, write anywhere" -- learn the OpenSocial APIs once and then build applications that work with any OpenSocial-enabled websites.

Several developers, including Gadget Partner Z, Gadget Partner Y, Gadget Partner X, etc., have already built applications that use the OpenSocial APIs. Starting today, a developer sandbox is available at http://sandbox.orkut.com so developers can go in and start testing the OpenSocial APIs. The goal is to have developers build applications in the sandbox so they can deploy on Orkut and ultimately other OpenSocial sites.

More Social In More Places

The existence of this single programming model also helps websites who are eager to satisfy their users' interest in social features. More developers building social applications more easily translates directly into more features more quickly for websites.

"Orkut has tens of millions of passionate users who are constantly clamoring for new ways to have fun with their friends and express themselves through Orkut," said Amar Gandhi, group product manager for Orkut, Google's social networking service. "By using OpenSocial to open up Orkut as a platform for any developer, we can tap into the vast creativity of the community and make new features available to our users frequently."

The common method that OpenSocial provides for hosting social applications means that websites can engage a much larger pool of third party developers than they could otherwise. They can direct resources that might have gone to maintaining a proprietary API and supporting its developer community to other projects.

Because OpenSocial removes the hassle from developing for individual websites, developers can unleash their creativity anywhere that catches their interest. This will translate into a wave of social features in contexts outside of the personal entertainment and games that are traditionally thought of as the social web.

Three APIs available now

The OpenSocial APIs give developers access to the data needed to build social applications: access to a user's profile, their friends, and the ability to let their friends know that activities have taken place. OpenSocial resources for developers and websites are available now at code.google.com/apis/opensocial.

Developers will have access to:
- Three JavaScript and Gdata APIs to access social functions
- A live developer sandbox on Orkut at sandbox.orkut.com

Websites will have access to:
- A tool to help OpenSocial-enable their websites
- A support forum for communicating with Google and other websites

All of these resources and the live developer sandbox are available now.

Developers already at work

Dozens of developers have helped test early iterations of the OpenSocial APIs and Google is grateful for the extensive feedback they have provided.

[List of all gadget developers]

Links to these gadgets are available at http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial.

Technorati Tags: Google Facebook, Microsoft, OpenSocial, Social Networks

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El parlamento francés deja Windows

El senado y la asamblea nacional dejarán de utilizar, en Francia, Windows, Internet explorer... Utilizarán firefox, Open Office, GNU/LINUX... Un gran cambio, la verdad. Ya me veo aprendiendo a sus señorías francesas. Es un gran golpe para Microsoft, que está en pleno proceso de lanzamiento y promoción de Windows Vista.

Vía: Abadía Digital

technorati Tags: France, Microsoft, Open Source, Change

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Zune sucks

Cuando salió el Zune pensé que iba a ser algo interesante. Las primeras reviews me dejaron atónito por el mal uso de la WIFI y lo mal que habían sacado el producto. Seguro que el hecho de perder la campaña de Navidad les hizo sacar el producto antes de tenerlo listo del todo. Pues bien, la última crítica ha sido demoledora. Ha sido escrita en el Chicago Sun-Times y se titula "Avoid the loony Zune". Esta crítica ha sido comentado en todos los grandes sites de tecnología: Boing Boing, Consumerist, Digg o Slashdot.

Parece que todo el mundo está de acuerdo que el producto no funciona. Si era así como esperaban ganarle al iPod están bien equivocados.

Vía: Enrique Dans

Technorati Tags: Zune, iPod, Microsoft, Review

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Steve Balmer cobrando con dinero Monopoly

Hace unos días Steve Balmer dijo qeu los usuarios de Linux eran unos ladrones de patentes. Pues bien, alguien ha tenido la siguiente idea: pagarle al Sr.Balmer el hurto de la propiedad. para ello se utilizarían billetes de monopoly que tengas por casa. La nota que se le envíe debe decir:"Mr. Ballmer, Since you live in a fantasy world, thought we’d pay some fantasy money for your fantasy claim."
Microsoft Corporation
c/o Steven Ballmer
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-7329

Vía: ALT1040

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Balmer, Linux, Patent

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Ya entré....

Tras más de 4 horas sin poder acceder, he conseguido acceder a mi cuenta de hotmail!!!

Technorati Tags: Hotmail, Microsoft, Service, Up

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Hotmail ocupado

Llevo toda la mañana tratando de acceder a mi correo hotmail pero dice que están saturados. Me parece alucinante que esto le pase a Microsoft con este servicio. No es la primera vez, y reconozco que cada vez uso menos este servicio. ALUCINO!

Technorati Tags: Hotmail, Microsoft, Service, Down

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Standard para SiteMaps

Parece que por fin se va a producir algo que tenía que llegar. Google, Yahoo y Microsoft han decidido usar el mismo protocolo de sitemap para indexar sites alrededor de la web. Los usuarios de Google no cambiarán nada, y se utilizará como standard sitemaps.org.

El protocolo se ofrece bajo Attribution-sharealike Creative Commons license, y puede ser utilizado por cualquier buscador.

El movimiento es muy interesante, facilitando la labor del desarrollador, usuario... Creo que deberíamos tender a unificar los standares y desarrollos, para que las tecnologías no fuesen tan limitantes. en un mundo que tiende a la globalización, debería extenderse hasta estos puntos.

Vía: TechCrunch

Technorati Tags: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Sitemaps, Protocol, Standard

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Microsoft contraataca

Que YouTube es un hit no es un secreto. hasta Google se ha gastado una cantidad muy importante de dinero (así sea en opciones y demás) para comprarlos. Pero era raro no ver algún tipo de reacción del gigante de Redmon. Microsoft piensa alquilar películas y vender programas de tv a través de XBOX LIVE. El 22 de noviembre empezará a ofrecer estas películas en HD. para disfrutar de este servicio necesitas una XBOX 360 con disco duro (y sin hackear! jajaja).

Una vez alquilada la película, tienes 2 semanas para verla, pero una vez iniciada, 24 horas. VIVA EL DRM!!! Esperan ofrecer 1000 horas de programación antes de finales de 2006.

Realmente es una estrategia interesante, aunque el modelo no me gusta lo más mínimo.

Vía: Negocios Internet en Hispanoamérica

Technorati Tags: XBOX, Microsoft, Movies, TV, Download

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Los empleados de las 3 grandes de Internet

Interesante gráfica en la que se comparan los empleados, en número, de Microsoft, Yahoo! y Google. Uno tendería a pensar que con tantos empleados uno saca tantos productos y de tal calidad. ¿pero es eso real?

Vía: Gabor Cselle

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, Employees

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IE 7 ya disponible

Ya está disponible la descarga de Internet Explorer 7. Está disponible para Windows XP Service Pack2. Si uno es usuario beta, es más rápido y sencillo actualizarse a la versión definitiva.

Entre las cosas interesantes, tenemos sistema de pestañas, protección mejorada y avalada por empresas como Paypal, especial hincapié en el phising, el cumplimiento de los estándares, corrector ortográfico o el manejo de archivos RSS.

Vía: Genbeta

Technorati Tags: Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Release

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