Acquisition attempt by Microsoft

Microsoft and Yahoo! pursued merger discussions in 2005, 2006, and 2007, that were all ultimately unsuccessful. At the time, analysts were skeptical about the wisdom of a business combination.[38][39]

On February 1, 2008, after its friendly takeover offer was rebuffed by Yahoo!, Microsoft made an unsolicited takeover bid to buy Yahoo! for US$44.6 billion in cash and stock.[40][41] Days later, Yahoo! considered alternatives to the merger with Microsoft, including a merger with internet giant Google[42] or a potential transaction with News Corp.[43] However, on February 11, 2008, Yahoo! decided to reject Microsoft's offer as "substantially undervaluing" Yahoo!'s brand, audience, investments, and growth prospects.[44] As of February 22, two Detroit based pension companies have sued Yahoo! and their board of directors for breaching their duty to shareholders by opposing Microsoft's takeover bid and pursuing "value destructive" third-party deals.[45][dead link] In early March, Google CEO Eric Schmidt went on record saying that he was concerned that a potential Microsoft-Yahoo! merger might hurt the Internet by compromising its openness.[46] The value of Microsoft's cash and stock offer declined with Microsoft's stock price, falling to $42.2 billion by April 4.[47] On April 5, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent a letter to Yahoo!'s board of directors stating that if within three weeks they had not accepted the deal, Microsoft would approach shareholders directly in hopes of a electing a new board and moving forward with merger talks; this is known as a hostile takeover.[48][dead link] In response, Yahoo! stated on April 7 that they were not against a merger, but that they wanted a better offer. In addition, they stated that Microsoft's "aggressive" approach was worsening their relationship and the chances of a "friendly" merger.[49] Later the same day, Yahoo! stated that the original $45 billion offer was not acceptable.[49] Following this, there has been considerable discussion of having Time Warner's AOL and Yahoo! merge, instead of the originally proposed Microsoft deal.[50]

On May 3, 2008, Microsoft withdrew their offer. During a meeting between Ballmer and Yang, Microsoft had offered to raise its offer by $5 billion to $33 per share, while Yahoo! demanded $37. One of Ballmer's lieutenants suggested that Yang would implement a poison pill to make the takeover as difficult as possible, saying "They are going to burn the furniture if we go hostile. They are going to destroy the place."[51][52]

Analysts say that Yahoo!'s shares, which closed at $28.67 on May 2, are likely to drop below $25 and perhaps as low as $20 on May 5, which would put significant pressure on Yang to engineer a turnaround of the company. Some suggest that institutional investors would file lawsuits against Yahoo!'s board of directors for not acting in shareholder interest by refusing Microsoft's offer.[53][54]

On May 5, 2008, following Microsoft's withdrawal Yahoo!'s stock plunged some 15% lower to $23.02 in Monday trading and trimmed about $6 billion off of its market capitalization.[55]

After Microsoft's failed bid to acquire Yahoo!, Microsoft is rumored to be looking at acquiring LiveDoor, a leading Japanese portal and the leading blogging service in Japan, to strengthen its position against Yahoo! Japan.

On June 12, 2008, Yahoo announced that it had ended all talks with Microsoft about purchasing either part of the business (the search advertising business) or all of the company. Talks had taken place the previous weekend (June 8), during which Microsoft allegedly told Yahoo that it was no longer interested in a purchase of the entire company at the price offered earlier -- $33/share. Also on June 12, Yahoo announced a non-exclusive search advertising alliance with Google.[56] Upon this announcement, many executives and senior employees have announced their plans to leave the company as it appears that they have lost confidence in Yahoo's strategies. According to market analysts, these pending departures are also impacting Wall Street's perception of the company. [57]

On July 7, 2008, Microsoft said it would reconsider proposing another bid for Yahoo if the company's nine directors were ousted at the annual meeting scheduled to be held on August 1, 2008. Microsoft believes it would be able to better negotiate with a new board.[58]

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, calling the current board irrational in its approach to talks with Microsoft, launched a proxy fight to replace Yahoo's board. On July 21, 2008 Yahoo settled with Carl Icahn, agreeing to appoint him and two allies to an expanded board.

On November 20, 2008, almost 10 months after Microsoft's initial offer of $33 per share, Yahoo's stock (YHOO) dropped to a 52-week low, trading at only $8.94 per share.[59]

On November 30, 2008, Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo's Search business for $20 billion.[60]

On July 29, 2009, it was announced with a 10 year deal that Microsoft will have full access to Yahoo search engine to be used in Microsoft future projects for its search engine Bing. [61] Under the deal, Microsoft was not required to pay any cash up front to Yahoo. The day after the deal was announced, Yahoo's share price declined more than 10% to $15.14, about 60% lower than Microsoft's takeover bid a year earlier.

Post dot-com bubble (2002–2009)

Yahoo! was one of the surviving large Internet companies after the dot-com bubble burst. Nevertheless, on September 26, 2001, Yahoo! stocks closed at a five-year low of $4.06 (split-adjusted).

Yahoo! formed partnerships with telecommunications and Internet providers to create content-rich broadband services to compete with AOL. On June 3, 2002, SBC and Yahoo! launched a national co-branded dial-up Internet access service.[26] In July 2003, BT Group Openworld announced an alliance with Yahoo!.[27] On August 23, 2005, Yahoo! and Verizon Communications launched an integrated DSL service.[28]

In late 2002, Yahoo! began to bolster its search services by acquiring other search engines. In December 2002, Yahoo! acquired Inktomi Corporation. In February 2005, Yahoo! acquired Konfabulator and rebranded it Yahoo! Widgets,[29] a desktop application and in July 2003, it acquired Overture Services, Inc. and its subsidiaries AltaVista and AlltheWeb. On February 18, 2004, Yahoo! dropped Google-powered results and returned to using its own technology to provide search results.

In 2004, in response to Google's release of Gmail, Yahoo! upgraded the storage of all free Yahoo! Mail accounts from 4 MB to 1 GB, and all Yahoo! Mail Plus accounts to 2 GB. On July 9, 2004, Yahoo! acquired e-mail provider Oddpost to add an Ajax interface to Yahoo! Mail.[30] On October 13, 2005, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced that Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger would become interoperable. In 2007, Yahoo! took out the storage meters, thus allowing users unlimited storage.

Yahoo! continued acquiring companies to expand its range of services, particularly Web 2.0 services. Yahoo! Launchcast became Yahoo! Music on February 9, 2005. On March 20, 2005, Yahoo! purchased photo sharing service Flickr.[31] On March 29, 2005, the company launched its blogging and social networking service Yahoo! 360°. In June 2005, Yahoo! acquired blo.gs, a service based on RSS feed aggregation. Yahoo! then bought online social event calendar Upcoming.org on October 4, 2005. Yahoo! acquired social bookmark site del.icio.us on December 9, 2005 and then playlist sharing community Webjay on January 9, 2006.

On August 27, 2007, Yahoo! released a new version of Yahoo! Mail. It adds Yahoo! Messenger integration. (which includes Windows Live Messenger due to the networks' federation) and free text messages (not necessarily free to the receiver) to mobile phones in the U.S., Canada, India and the Philippines.[32]

On January 29, 2008, Yahoo! announced that the company was laying off 1,000 employees as the company had suffered severely in its inability to effectively compete with industry search leader Google. The cuts represent 7 percent of the company's workforce of 14,300. Employees are being invited to apply for an unknown number of new positions that are expected to open as the company expands areas that promise faster growth.[33]

In February, 2008, Yahoo! acquired Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Maven Networks, a supplier of internet video players and video advertising tools, for approx. $160 million.

Yahoo! announced on November 17, 2008 that Yang would be stepping down as CEO.[34]

On December 10, 2008, Yahoo! began laying off 1,520 employees around the world as the company managed its way through the global economic downturn.[35] By carefully managing expenses, Yahoo has remained one of the most profitable pure-Internet companies in the world[36] , and maintains billions of dollars on its balance sheet[37], despite continued "softness" in the advertising world.

Dot-com bubble (2000–2001)

Yahoo! stock doubled in price in the last month of 1999.[20] On January 3, 2000, at the height of the Dot-com boom, Yahoo! stocks closed at an all-time high of $118.75 a share. Sixteen days later, shares in Yahoo! Japan became the first stocks in Japanese history to trade at over ¥100,000,000, reaching a price of ¥101.4 million ($94,780 at that time).[21]

On February 7, 2000, the Yahoo! domain was brought to a halt for a few hours as it was the victim of a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS).[22] On the next day, its shares rose about $16, or 4.5 percent as the failure was blamed on hackers rather than on an internal glitch, unlike a fault with eBay earlier that year.


During the dot-com boom, the cable news station CNBC also reported that Yahoo! and eBay were discussing a 50/50 merger.[23] Although the merger never materialized the two companies decided to form a marketing/advertising alliance six years later in 2006.[24]

On June 26, 2000, Yahoo! and Google signed an agreement which retained Google as the default worldwide-web search engine for Yahoo! following a beta trial in 1999.[25]

History and growth of yahoo

Early history (1994–1999)
Yahoo! co-founders Jerry Yang (left) and David Filo (right)

In January 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo were Electrical Engineering graduate students at Stanford University. In April 1994, "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web" was renamed "Yahoo!", for which the official backronym is "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle".[11][12] Filo and Yang said they selected the name because they liked the word's general definition, which comes from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: "rude, unsophisticated and uncouth".[13] Its URL was akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo.[14]

The Yahoo! domain was created on January 18, 1995.[15] Yang and Filo realized their website had massive business potential, and on March 1, 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated.[16] On April 5, 1995, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital provided Yahoo! with two rounds of venture capital, raising approximately $3 million.[17][18] On April 12, 1996, Yahoo! had its initial public offering, raising $33.8 million, by selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.

Like many web search engines and web directories, Yahoo! diversified into a web portal. In the late 1990s, Yahoo!, MSN, Lycos, Excite and other Web portals were growing rapidly. Web portal providers rushed to acquire companies to expand their range of services, in the hope of increasing the time a user stayed at the portal.

On March 8, 1997, Yahoo acquired online communications company Four11. Four11's webmail service, RocketMail, became Yahoo! Mail. Yahoo! also acquired ClassicGames.com and turned it into Yahoo! Games. Yahoo! then acquired direct marketing company Yoyodyne Entertainment, Inc. on October 12. On March 8, 1998, Yahoo! launched Yahoo! Pager,[19] an instant messaging service that was renamed Yahoo! Messenger a year later. On January 28, 1999, Yahoo! acquired web hosting provider GeoCities. Another company Yahoo! acquired was eGroups, which became Yahoo! Groups after the acquisition on June 28, 2000.

When acquiring companies, Yahoo! often changed the relevant terms of service. For example, they claimed intellectual property rights for content on their servers, unlike the companies they acquired. As a result, many of the acquisitions were controversial and unpopular with users of the existing services.

website

A website (also spelled web site) is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed with a common domain name or IP address in an Internet Protocol-based network. A web site is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via the Internet or a private local area network.

A web page is a document, typically written in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). A web page may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable markup anchors.

Web pages are accessed and transported with the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which may optionally employ encryption (HTTP Secure, HTTPS) to provide security and privacy for the user of the web page content. The user's application, often a web browser, renders the page content according to its HTML markup instructions onto a display terminal.

All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web.

The pages of a website can usually be accessed from a simple Uniform Resource Locator (URL) called the homepage. The URLs of the pages organize them into a hierarchy, although hyperlinking between them conveys the reader's perceived site structure and guides the reader's navigation of the site.

Some websites require a subscription to access some or all of their content. Examples of subscription sites include many business sites, parts of many news sites, academic journal sites, gaming sites, message boards, web-based e-mail, services, social networking websites, and sites providing real-time stock market data.

Easy Steps Caring for Skin Health

When the skin looks pimply face and appear black stains, you certainly try all the way to removed it. But you know, it is a natural form of treatment for the skin problems you face.
Since first epoch, the nation of Egypt has to know the benefits of honey as antibakteri and use it for skin care. One of the ingredients is simple nutritious naturally clean the skin, decrease pore-pore, reduce excess oil, and prevent wrinkling in the face.

4 Follow the steps below to get a facial skin clean and bright >> 1.Make sure you buy 100% pure honey for best results! When buying, see honey label on the bottle carefully before deciding where the honeymoon will be selected.

2.Use a warm towel to wash the entire surface of your face. This aims to open the pore-pore face you. Take a little honey with the tip of your finger, and oleskan in the face. Slowly rubbing honey on your face with circular movements. Make sure both your hands clean when making massage.

3.For best results leave the honey on the face for 10 minutes. That honey can be absorbed into the pore-pore and kill the bacteria.

4.clean your face with warm water, and end with the cold water to close the pore-pore face. Repeat steps 2 - 4 each day, as long as you want the skin of the face clean and bright.

dc hair laser removal washington

Laser hair removal in Washington DC is quickly becoming one of the most popular cosmetic procedures for both men and women. If you are sick and tired of shaving, waxing, or tweezing unwanted hair on a daily or weekly basis, and are looking for a more permanent solution, we have exactly what you need. Many men and women are turning to the latest trend in hair removal - the laser. For those interested in our revolutionary non-invasive procedure, here are all the facts that you need to know before you go under the light. This procedure has been hyped around the globe as the permanent solution to unwanted hair removal and has shown great promise in delivering on that claim. However, before investing your valuable time and hard earned money into Laser Hair Removal treatments, we suggest you do a little research.

The effect of removing unwanted hair by laser was first discovered by dermatologists in the late 1960s. Dermatologists discovered that during treatment for skin conditions with lasers, the removal of hair in the treatment area happened to be a side effect and because of this, lasers have been studied extensively for years for their hair removal effectiveness. Many different types of lasers have since been approved by the FDA and now professional treatments for Laser Hair Removal in Washington DC are available to all interested residents.

Today, Laser Hair Removal in Washington DC is one of the fastest growing non-invasive cosmetic procedures on the market. Last year alone, over one million individuals underwent laser treatments around the globe. At our Washington DC clinic, all of the technicians are trained and certified on the latest laser hair removal equipment; this guarantees professional Laser Hair Removal treatments each and every time you visit. To learn more about our approach to this extraordinary treatment, come in for a free and confidential consultation. We’ll give you all the information you need and get you set up for a series of Laser Hair Removal treatments at our Washington DC clinic that will leave you with nothing but hair free skin!

domain name yahoo

If you are considering the purchase of a new domain name, Yahoo Small Business is a good option and you can usually get your new domain name at a good rate. Purchasing a domain name from Yahoo Small Business is a simple and easy process.

Step 1

Go to domains.yahoo.com.

Step 2

Type in your desired domain name and press the "Search" button to see if it is available. If your first choice is taken, you will have to repeat this process until you find a name that is available.

Step 3

Press the "Sign Up" button, which will appear once you have chosen an available domain name.

Step 4

Choose whether you want to purchase the domain name for one, two, three or five years. Press the "Continue" button.

Step 5

Verify your Yahoo ID by typing in your password. This is required for verification purposes before proceeding. If you don't have a Yahoo ID, then you will need to create one before you can proceed with your purchase.

Step 6

Input your credit card information into the supplied form. Once you have double checked that all of the information is correct, press the "Continue" button.

Step 7

Review and confirm your order. Make sure that all your billing information is correct and that you have selected the package that you want. This is important because, once you proceed, you will not be able to make any more changes to your order. Once you press the "Continue" button, you will be the proud owner of a new domain name.

domains yahoo

Having put up more than a few Web sites myself, one of the easiest ways I've found to get your domains set up and running is to simply go through Yahoo.

Yahoo will register your domains' names for under $10 a year, though as of this writing, Yahoo is having a sale on domains for $2.99 per year. That's a lot cheaper than some registrars I've seen that are still trying to charge $20 or more just for domains.

Once you get your domain registered, you still need to host it somewhere. Again, Yahoo has a simple answer, or several simple answers, in its Geocities service. You can plunk down your domains for free at Yahoo Geocities, but you'll have ads. For a nominal fee ($4.95 per month) you can get 500 MB storage and 25 GB per month transfer -- that's more than enough for most starter sites.

If you host your domains through Yahoo Geocities, you'll get plenty of tools to help you design and manage your site, enough to do just about anything legal you might want to do on the Net.

You'll have access to Yahoo web page templates as well as a point-and-click designer, in addition to the ability to manually play with your domains' HTML.

Yahoo also gives you choices for uploading, using their easy upload manager or the more traditional FTP for large sites. E-mail is part of the package.

A recent addition to the Yahoo Geocities tools is the ability to start and manage a blog on your domains.

All in all, registering and hosting your domains through Yahoo is an easy solution for a home user or small business.
source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Yahoo-Domains:-A-Simple-Web-Site-Solution&
id=216669

Scheduling Your Chats

To enhance your NYA chatting experience try the following:
# Select a certain day, time to meet your NYA friends each week.
# Host your own chat events. Play a game of scramble or share jokes or etc.

Don't Worry

Don't be embarrassed because you type slowly [hunt 'n peck] or can't spell very good. Everyone here only cares about you and will welcome your thoughts and messages no matter what they look like! Together you will figure them out!

Improving Chat Skills

Chat rooms offer lively and entertaining exchanges for everyone who participates. Like anything else, chatting requires a little time and practice to fully enjoy the experience.

Introduce Yourself

To create a comfortable environment and enhance your chatting experience, familiarize yourself with chat guidelines, etiquette, or tips.

Before you begin to chat, take a moment to view the conversations and get a feel for the atmosphere in the room.

You'll be able to see the names of others in the room. Introduce yourself and greet everyone in the room. A simple "Hello Everyone" or just "Hi NYA" is a great way to start. Before you know it, you'll be chatting!

Chit-Chatting

Sometimes, people speak what they don't think, speak what they don't mean and it can be a fun time, a way to pass time on the net! So it happens with Chit chatting; it's more messaging and human communication if it's not used with a purpose. So have fun!

Etiquette

Chat room etiquettes requires you to be open and frank sometimes. So, chat right and do not hesitate to use the "ignore" feature there is someone in the chatroom you don't want to talk with.
If you have any concerns about messages appearing in this chat room, please report them to NYA Adult Advisor Jean Miller.

Safety

For safety purposes, never reveal your real name, location, or telephone number. There are two types of chat s- group and private. Group chats are virtual rooms filled with a whole bunch of people having various discussions at the same time. Private chats rooms are for those who wish to have their chats in a less busy setting. And although the NYA Chat is not listed in any chatroom directory, both are public forums.

User Names

When you sign on you can choose your username or anonymous handle. Use anonymity to your benefit and select a name that reflects your personality.

A Few Things You Should Know About "Chatting"

The Beginning

Chatting in real-time enhances the chat experience by creating a conversational atmosphere. You must have Internet access to chat.

But, before embarking on your chat adventure, you should familiarize yourself with the concept of chat. Chat is quite different from email; it takes place in real-time. Once you type a message, everyone in the chat session views your words almost instantly.

Once you become comfortable with chatting, you can create lasting friendships. Together, you will forge a community of individuals based on your shared interests and life experience in living with Huntington's Disease.

A Few Things You Should Know About "Chatting"

The Beginning

Chatting in real-time enhances the chat experience by creating a conversational atmosphere. You must have Internet access to chat.

But, before embarking on your chat adventure, you should familiarize yourself with the concept of chat. Chat is quite different from email; it takes place in real-time. Once you type a message, everyone in the chat session views your words almost instantly.

Once you become comfortable with chatting, you can create lasting friendships. Together, you will forge a community of individuals based on your shared interests and life experience in living with Huntington's Disease.

Yahoo Messenger

Yahoo! Messenger is an advertisement-supported instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger is provided free of charge and can be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo! ID" which also allows access to other Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Mail, where users can be automatically notified when they receive new email. Yahoo! also offers PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC service, file transfers, webcam hosting, text messaging service, and chat rooms in various categories.

Yahoo! Messenger was originally launched under the name Yahoo! Pager on March 9, 1998.[1]

In addition to instant messaging features similar to those offered by ICQ, it also offers (on Microsoft Windows) features such as: IMVironments (customizing the look of Instant Message windows, some of which include authorized themes of famous cartoons such as Garfield or Dilbert), address-book integration and Custom Status Messages.[2] It was also the first major IM client to feature BUZZing and music-status. Another recently added feature is customized avatars.

chatting in english

The verb "to chat" means to talk (to someone) in a friendly, informal way. Today there are many places on the Internet where you can chat. You can chat with people all over the world, in many languages and about many subjects or topics. These places are usually called "chatrooms" and you can find thousands of them by using the keywords "chat" or "chatroom" in any good search engine.

Sometimes you need to register to enter a chatroom. This means that you need to provide a username and password, and possibly your email address. Your username does not have to be your real name. It can be your nickname or any name you want (if it is not already in use). When you have your username, other people in the chatroom will call you by that name and nobody else can use it.

Chatting is a good way to practise your *informal* English. Messages in a chatroom, are usually short sentences. Sometimes they are not even sentences, but just a few words that are not really correct grammatically but may be typical of the way we speak in a quick conversation with friends.

To save time, people often use abbreviations like TTYL (talk to you later) or IDK (I don't know). You can see a list of some of these abbreviations below.

So don't go to a chatroom to practise "perfect" English. Go to a chatroom to practise casual or informal English and find new friends. You can even use a chatroom to help improve your typing skills if you want.

There are usually two ways to chat in most chatrooms:

1. In public. (Everyone can see what you say.)
2. In private. (This is called "person-to-person" or "one-to-one" and you talk directly to one other person. No-one else can see what you say. This is useful to chat with a friend or relative in another country, or to have private lessons with a teacher.)

Here are some of the most common abbreviations people use:

* 121 One-to-one (Person-to-person) AFK Away from keyboard
* AKA Also known as
* ASAP As soon as possible
* ASL Age/sex/location?
* B4 Before
* BBL Be back later
* BRB Be right back
* BTW By the way
* CUZ Because
* FAQ Frequently asked questions FYI For your information
* IDK I don't know
* J/K Just kidding
* K OK
* L8R Later
* LOL Laugh out loud
* M/F Male or female
* MSG Message
* OIC Oh, I see
* P2P Person-to-person
* PLZ Please
* PM Private message
* SYL See you later
* TGIF Thank goodness it's Friday THX Thanks
* TTYL Talk to you later

To chat in English with other English Club visitors, try EnglishClub.com ESL Chat. It's easy to enter - just type in a user name and press "connect". If you want, you can choose a password, but it's not essential.