SEO Blog

We had a fun Webcology show yesterday on WebmasterRadio.fm.

Search business junkies that we are, co-host Dave Davies and I couldn’t resist dissecting the dirt on Carl Icahn’s intrusion /or/ insertion into the conflict over Yahoo!’s future. Pity the news about Paulson & Co.’s 3.4% stake hadn’t broken at the time the show aired.

The show moves through a few other notable news stories including CBS buying online news source c|net for 1.5billion, and Kim Kraus Berg’s birthday. (Kim has done more than most in search to push the importance of website usability. She has made enormous contributions to the industry)

The last half of the show is our interview with Jordan Bookie from Google and Anita Borg Scholarship Award winner, Celina Gibb from the University of Victoria.

To listen in, please click on the gadget below:

Webmaster Radio
	Yahoo & Microsoft Talks Might Reignite Show: Webcology

CNBC is reporting the emergence of another powerful body in the fight to control the Yahoo! Board of Directors. A hedge fund, Paulson & Co. has been quietly amassing Yahoo! shares starting shortly after Microsoft made its unsolicited acquisition offer.

Run by veteran investor John Paulson, the hedge fund made billions over the last year betting on the financial chaos of the sub-prime credit meltdown. Paulson & Co. now owns approximately 3.4% of Yahoo!

Paulson is likely to support the group led by Carl Icahn that wishes to push Yahoo! into accepting Microsoft’s $47.5 billion dollar purchase offer.

Yahoo! continues to say it is open to a deal with Microsoft however it wants the bid price raised to $37/share or approximately $53.2 billion. Microsoft has not yet made comment.

Billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn announced today he was taking the Yahoo! Board of Directors to the court of shareholder opinion. Icahn, who has acquired approximately 59 million shares of Yahoo! (about 4% of shares), put the proxy fight in motion this morning with a letter to Yahoo! Chairman Roy Bostock.

Icahn’s letter to Bostock said he was putting ten names up for election to the Yahoo! Board in a bid to re-open acquisition negotiations with Microsoft.

“It is clear to me that the board of directors of Yahoo has acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders and Microsoft,” Mr. Icahn said in the letter. “It is quite obvious that Microsoft’s bid of $33 per share is a superior alternative to Yahoo’s prospects on a standalone basis.”

While thousands of other Yahoo! shareholders might agree with Icahn’s opinion, few of them have the resources to take action. Icahn does. His named slate of potential directors is made up of a who’s-who list of dot-com or entertainment industry executives. According to the NYTimes, the list includes;

Last week I wrote about an institution or massive investor that was perceived to be buying blocks of Yahoo! shares. My source was unable to put his (or her) finger on exactly who that person or organization was but he/she was certain the buying fit a pattern that spelled big-pockets and suggested even bigger plans. Someone or some thing’s buying was keeping Yahoo! shares above the $25 mark, far higher than observers expected after Microsoft bailed on its acquisition attempt.

Guess what… Yahoo!’s back in play.

Today legendary activist investor, Carl Icahn, announced he had purchased approximately 3% of Yahoo!’s shares in a bid to take over the company. He has been buying shares for the past few weeks, apparently in the hopes of getting Microsoft back to the negotiating table. Icahn declared his stock purchases today because tomorrow is the deadline for nominating names to stand for Yahoo!’s Board of Directors at the company’s Annual General Meeting next month.

Icahn is taking an enormous gamble as there has been no signals from Microsoft it is interested in reopening negotiations with Yahoo!, having instead re-adopted the “Go it alone in search” stance. He has been known to take such gambles in the past, sometimes successfully, sometimes unsuccessfully.