Could Yahoo Be Eyeing Time Warner After Rejecting Microsoft Bid?

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace )-- Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) may have rejected Microsoft Corp’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid, but that doesn’t mean that another strategic partnership is out of the question, namely with Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX).

Claiming that Microsoft’s offer “substantially undervalues” Yahoo, the company is left with the opportunity to negotiate a better deal out of Microsoft or even another interested party. Insiders say that Yahoo may have reached out to Time Warner's AOL unit, a rumor that has yet to be confirmed by either company.

NewsVisual illustrated the connections to Time Warner that could help Yahoo land a deal with the creation of an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map. A number of direct connections combined with current relationships through common entities could soon lead to a partnership between Yahoo and Time Warner.

Time Warner’s Q4 2007 Earnings Disappoint; Company Assures Investors of Improvements

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace) -- In giving more bad news to Wall Street, Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX) announced on Wednesday morning that fourth-quarter 2007 income declined from that of the same period last year, with diluted income per common share going from $0.43 in Q4 2006 to $0.28 in Q4 2007.

Likewise, although the company’s 2007 revenues rose 6 percent over 2006 to $45.6 billion, its full-year diluted income per common share fell from $1.20 in 2006 to $1.08 in 2007, the company reported in a statement.

The company sought to assure investors that it was implementing a deliberate set of measures to improve its future performance:

“We’ve identified key initiatives that will enable us to deliver strong business results long into the future while increasing our return to our shareholders,” said CEO/President Jeff Bewkes in the statement.

Is NBC For Sale?

Could global industrial giant General Electric be looking to sell its entertainment unit NBC Universal? According to information from the Financial Times and 24/7 Wall St. the answer could be “yes” (see article from 24/7 Wall St.). It has been argued that NBC was never a good fit with GE’s industrial focus and that its lower performance has hurt the overall performance of GE. However, no decision will be made until after the 2008 Beijing Olympics (which makes sense considering NBC has the global rights to televise the quadrennial event). We were curious as to which companies might make a bid for NBC should it go up for sale. Since Time Warner and Vivendi are two of the largest media companies in the world, we decided to create IntellectSpace Knowledge Maps to determine if they had any corporate ties to GE should they be interested in acquiring NBC.

AOL Deal with ABC Marked By Strong Ties Between Disney and Time Warner

In its latest effort to revive AOL, Time Warner Inc has finalized a deal with Walt Disney Co’s ABC that will allow viewers to watch full-length prime-time shows from the network for free on AOL (see article from The Wall Street Journal). ABC shows will be available beginning from today, along with CBS shows, which are already available on AOL. To determine if any company connections played a role in this deal, IntellectSpace created a Knowledge Map of Walt Disney and Time Warner that exposes some strong connections between the companies.