MEiNE HOMepAGE - NewsLetter

hi! dis is mainak. your friend. here are the tech stuffs...

MOBILE MARATHON

Times of India on 02/06/2008 at 6:45am (UTC)

Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users in the third quarter of 2007 reached 289 million units, a 15 per cent increase from the same period last year, according to Gartner Inc. The top five vendors increased their marketshares and accounted for 81.6 per cent of the global marketshare.

“Even though relatively few models were introduced this quarter, overall sales exceeded expectations. Sales were mainly driven by strong performances in Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa,” said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner.

Here's looking into how the top cell phone companies performed in the Q3, which saw Samsung snatch the No. 2 position from Motorola taking advantage of the latter's continued weak performance.

Regulators likely to keep a watch on any Google-Yahoo tie-up

REUTERS[ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 06, 2008 02:21:35 AM] on 02/06/2008 at 6:43am (UTC)

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO: Google might be able to stymie Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo by forging a deal to run Yahoo's web search operations or buy a minority stake — but even that risks the ire of anti-trust regulators.

Microsoft on Friday offered to pay $44.6 billion for Yahoo, an ailing web star that has been under pressure from Wall Street to either cut jobs or make more money on advertising. To fend off Microsoft's overture, a Yahoo source said on Sunday the search company would consider a business alliance with Google.

Google, which has 58.4% of the US web search market, would probably be prevented by US anti-trust enforcers from buying Yahoo, with 22.9% of the search market, according to ComScore, antitrust experts said.

"The probability that (a Google/Yahoo deal) would pass antitrust muster is a lot lower than the Yahoo-Microsoft deal would pass muster," said Luke Froeb, a former director of the US Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics.

Aaron Edlin, who teaches law and economics at the University of California in Berkeley, said Google could help Yahoo stay out of Microsoft's grip with a carefully targeted buy like "an investment in stock, 10 or 20%, a non-controlling interest."

Google and Microsoft are bitter rivals. Microsoft staunchly opposed Google's offer to buy advertising company DoubleClick for $3.1 billion last year. US antitrust regulators approved the deal in December.

One alternative that Yahoo and Google appear ready to consider is to revive an old arrangement where Yahoo relied on Google to power web searches on its site. Yahoo was Google's highest profile customer from 1999 to early 2004. Regulators would still have the option to stop such a partnership, but it could prove lucrative to Yahoo.

Google has a three-year, $900 million deal to run searches for MySpace, the world's largest social network site. "Google and Yahoo have a longer history of working together than Yahoo and Microsoft," said Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst with Oppenheimer in San Francisco.

"Yahoo has to make a decision about how much upside they make from working with Google as a partner versus selling out to Microsoft." While any deal between Yahoo and Google would reflect a hard-nosed business decision, there are also many cultural ties that join the two Silicon Valley internet giants.

Aggarwal says one big appeal of Google's search advertising system is that it generates 45% more revenue per search than Yahoo's own search system and at least that percentage relative to Microsoft searches. David Lisi, a lawyer with Howry, said that even licensing searches from Google could draw regulatory concern - though not necessarily an outright rejection.

"Technology having moved on - now they're competitors," he said. "It's the kind of thing that regulators would take a look at. I can't tell you what they'd decide." Lisi said that Yahoo might consider breaking itself up - but added: "I think that's very remote."

"I think Yahoo is looking for the third alternative. Nobody wants to get into a bidding war with Microsoft but Yahoo will offer licensing," he said, adding that Google may try to convince a media or other company to partner with Yahoo.

In this hypothetical situation, Lisi said that Google might say, "'We will sweeten the pot and be a strategic partner with Yahoo.' That might be enough."

Microsoft may raise Yahoo bid

REUTERS[ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 06, 2008 09:53:15 AM] on 02/06/2008 at 6:40am (UTC)

LOS ANGELES: Sceptical investors are trading Yahoo Inc shares at a 6.5 per cent discount to Microsoft Corp's unofficial offer price, but some Wall Streeters expect the software giant to raise its bid.

UBS set a price target for Yahoo shares above Microsoft's $31 offer and Citi said a raised Microsoft bid was the most likely of five scenarios it saw for the unfolding drama between the world's largest software company and the ailing Internet star.

Yahoo shares closed on Tuesday at $28.98, more than $2 per share below the $31 price Microsoft offered last week. Microsoft shares have dropped about 12 per cent since that offer was made, potentially cutting the value of the half cash, half stock offer.

But UBS set its price target for Yahoo at $34, saying Microsoft “will do what is needed to get this deal done.”

“In a hostile deal the acquirer usually does not lead with its best and final offer and we would not be surprised to see Microsoft sweeten the pot somewhat to make the decision easier for Yahoo's board,” the investment bank wrote in a note.

Citi has a $31 target price but said the likeliest outcome, at a 40 per cent chance was for Microsoft to raise its bid and make the acquisition after Yahoo rejected the initial offer.

“It's reasonable to assume that Microsoft might be willing to increase its offer,” analyst Mark Mahaney said in a note.

Citi gave a 20 per cent probability that Yahoo would accept the current bid and a 25 per cent chance that Yahoo would hire Google Inc to run its search operations in a lucrative contract. It saw a 10 per cent chance regulators would block a deal and a 5 per cent chance another bidder emerged.

Yahoo has simply said that it would consider the proposal in the context of its strategic plans.

Microsoft wants Yahoo's Internet advertising abilities, Citi said. Deal synergies would leave the acquisition reasonably priced even at a higher bid, it argued.
Moreover, Yahoo has a poison pill provision and stands to do more for Microsoft if the deal is friendly -- many analysts have remarked that winning over Yahoo's rank and file would be key to the deal's success.

Finally, Citi and UBS both said that software company Oracle Corp's recent acquisition of BEA Systems, at a 14 per cent premium to its initial bid, set a possible precedent of how to get a deal done.

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