Yahoo Inc's President Decker Could Directly Benefit from Buyout

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace) -- Several members of Yahoo! Inc’s (NASDAQ: YHOO) leadership, including a few of its Senior Executives and members of its Board of Directors, could reap enormous financial benefits--either directly or indirectly--from a buyout of the company’s stock at a high price.

For example, NewsVisual created an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map that shows that Yahoo President Susan L Decker has “beneficial ownership of securities” with Yahoo! Inc.

And then, by clicking on the Knowledge Map’s link to a Securities and Exchange Commission report called “A Statement of Changes in Beneficial Ownership” (SEC Form 4) that was filed on Aug 2, 2007, we can see instantaneously that Ms. Decker acquired 5,242 shares of Yahoo! Inc Common Stock.  She purchased the stock at $24.56 per share, the report shows.

It’s Now Official: Microsoft Vows to Fight for Yahoo Buyout

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace) -- As the media reported that Yahoo was preparing for layoffs, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) officially responded to the rejection of its $44.6 billion bid by Yahoo! Inc’s (NASDAQ:YHOO) Board of Directors and vowed to continue its efforts by taking the buyout offer directly to Yahoo’s shareholders.

Microsoft’s response came in the form of a press release posted on its website.

“It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies,” the statement says.

The company suggests that it’s already begun to lay the groundwork for a shareholder fight by suggesting that it’s been in contact with some of the parties:

Media Buzz Suggest that Microsoft Will Fight Yahoo’s Rebuff

Only hours after the Board of Directors of Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) announced its rejection of Microsoft Corp’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) $44.6 billion buyout bid, speculation began to mount in the business news media as to how the folks at Redmond would respond.

For example, the Financial Times reported that the Redmond software titan “is gearing up to take its bid to acquire Yahoo directly to the Silicon Valley company’s shareholders” (read the FT.com article by Chris Nuttall and Richard Waters ).

By mid-afternoon Monday, however, there was still no official word from Microsoft itself on how it would respond to Yahoo’s notice of rejection.

Microsoft’s share price was down from the previous close of $28.56 to $28.21 at the bell (4:00pm ET).

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.

Yahoo’s Board of Directors Says No to Microsoft Deal

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace) -- In a tersely worded Monday morning press release, Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) announced that it was turning down the Microsoft Corp’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) $44.6 billion buyout bid.

Yahoo’s rejection was issued by the company’s Board of Directors.

The bluntly worded press statement said:

“[The] Board of Directors has carefully reviewed Microsoft's unsolicited proposal with Yahoo!'s management team and financial and legal advisors and has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders.”

The market’s response to the Directors’ announcement appeared to be favorable, but it was also somewhat muted, sending its share price up slightly from the previous close of $29.20 to $29.47 in mid-morning trading on Monday (10:43am ET).

NewsVisual decided to create an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map in order to illustrate the business connections of Yahoo’s Board of Directors as a method for assessing their knowledge of business and for determining whether their rejection of Microsoft’s bid reflects the judgment of experienced people.

Yahoo and Softbank Talk Business Regarding Microsoft Bid

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace )-- In the week since Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) made its unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO), a number of concerned parties have stepped in to try and stop the deal.

Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) has been public about its worries that a partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo would make Microsoft an all too powerful competitor in online markets, though its doubtful that Google would make a successful counter offer due to regulatory concerns.

The latest to join in Yahoo’s aid is Japanese mobile carrier Softbank Corp. The company’s President, Masayoshi Son, said that he is currently in talks with Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s CEO, about a plan of action regarding Microsoft’s takeover bid. Son denied that Softbank was considering a counter offer for Yahoo, but offered little details as to his role in the talks.

Connections Between Google and Yahoo Create Alliance Against Microsoft

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace )-- Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) may be far from rivaling Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) in a takeover of Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO), though that likely won’t stop the web giant from becoming deeply involved in the situation.

No counter offers have yet been made to challenge Microsoft’s unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo, which could potentially make the deal a sure thing and boost Microsoft’s web presence as a serious competitor to Google. Due to regulatory concerns, it is doubtful that Google will make a competing offer,  however the company could be strategizing other manuevers to keep Microsoft from acquiring Yahoo.

In order to identify how the companies may be collaborating to challenge Microsoft, NewsVisual created an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map of the notable relationships held between key Directors and Executives at Yahoo and Google.

Will Yahoo’s New Chairman Push For A Deal With Microsoft?

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace )-- As Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) decides its next move in light of Friday’s $44.6 billion takeover offer from Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT), the board may be relying heavily on the dealmaking expertise of new its new Chairman, Roy J Bostock.

After being appointed as Chairman of Yahoo on Thursday night, Bostock quickly had to jump into the responsibility of deciding how to responding to Microsoft's offer. Given his past experience in corporate takeovers and sales, the timing of Bostock’s appointment comes just in the nick of time.

An IntellectSpace Knowledge Map created by NewsVisual illustrates the past and current connections that make Bostock a valuable asset to Yahoo in this critical period. He is a Director at Northwest Airlines, which is currently in the middle of deal talks with Delta Airlines, and was also involved in leading companies that were eventually sold to become Bcom3.

Google To Team Up With Yahoo To Challenge Microsoft

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace )-- Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt, in an effort to thwart Microsoft Corp’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) takeover attempts of Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO), has reached out to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang.

On Friday, Microsoft made a $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo; an obvious attempt at challenging rival Google’s dominant status in web business. Analysts are doubtful that Google could be interested in its own deal with Yahoo, primarily because of regulatory concerns, though Microsoft shouldn’t consider itself in the clear. Speculation among insiders suggests that Google could use its reach to prevent Microsoft from having an easy time of acquiring Yahoo, by influencing others to make competing offers. A partnership such as this with Google could also help keep Yahoo independent.

Microsoft and Google Exchange Barbs over Yahoo Bid

During the weekend, Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) traded angry statements over last week’s $44.6 billion bid by the latter to buy Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Given the fact that the two statements were issued by both companies’ top legal officers, the statements could be interpreted as a harbinger of future court battles between the two technology titans.

Google fired the first shot over the bow on Sunday at 11:45am when it uploaded a press release onto its website:

“Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions,” wrote Google’s Chief Legal Officer, Senior Vice President David Drummond, in the release.

“This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation,” he added.

Strong Ties May Decide Fate of Deal Between Microsoft and Yahoo

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace)-- Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) on Friday announced that it had made a $44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO), in what could be the biggest takeover of the year.

The news sent Yahoo’s shares soaring. Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) currently dominates online business services, but a partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo would make for stiff competition.

NewsVisual created an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map of the corporate ties shared between key Executives and Directors at Microsoft and Yahoo in order to identify the relationships that may become critical to negations.

One individual who may hold a great deal of sway over the matter is Mary Agnes Wilderotter, a Director at Yahoo. Wilderotter serves as a direct link between the two companies as she was previously a Senior Vice President at Microsoft until 2004.

The Yahoo and CNBC Alliance: Could Board Room Connections Have Spawned This Strategic Deal?

In a move that looks like an initiative to blunt some of the impact of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp’s recent acquisition of the Dow Jones Company, Yahoo Inc (YHOO) and CNBC issued a joint statement on Wednesday that announced their own deal to form a strategic alliance to protect the competitiveness of their own financial news properties.

Under the terms of the agreement, CNBC will distribute content to Yahoo Finance in the United States and its 21 international financial news sites.  The CNBC content will include video clips from CNCB global networks, including CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia, as well as print-like content from the company’s Internet property, CNBC.com.

Experience Pays Off for Yahoo!

Is one hundred days all you need to turn a company around? Jerry Yang would say "yes". Shares of Yahoo! jumped today after the Internet giant turned in better-than-expected Q3 results. This comes after CEO Jerry Yang initiated a 100-day long effort to formulate a reorganization plan for Yahoo!, which has been losing much of its online advertising and searching business to Google (see article from MarketWatch.com). The Q3 results indicate that at least some of the plans put in place by the Board of Directors seemed to have work. To get an idea of the experience of the Directors, we created this IntellectSpace Knowledge Map of their corporate ties (Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Security and Exchange Commission of the United States of America).

The Directors at Yahoo! hold directorships at notable companies such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Morgan Stanley, Northwest Airlines, Network Appliance, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Cisco Systems, and ActiVision. The experience gained from these directorships, in industries ranging from fashion to finance to airline to hospitality, could indicate that the Directors have a several creative ideas on how to restructure Yahoo!.

AOL and HP in Deal to Realign Advertising

AOL expanded a deal with Hewlett-Packard Co in a move to take AOL’s properties and services to over thirty countries in two years (see article from Reuters). We created two IntellectSpace Knowledge Maps to determine if Time Warner had any special connections to HP over rival Internet portal Yahoo! and found that both Time Warner and Yahoo have strong connections to HP.

Merger Rumors Between Yahoo and AOL Strengthened by Common Connections

The buzz about the possibility of Time Warner selling AOL has once again picked up steam, and Yahoo is rumored to remain at the top of the list of potential buyers (see article from DealBook). When the merger talk first started to circulate in July, we mapped the connections between Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons and Yahoo Chairman and former CEO Terry Semel, and found that Semel had previously been Chairman and Co-CEO of Time Warner’s Warner Bros. division (see NewsVisual article ).