Court docs: Yahoo was averse to Google deal

Yahoo execs opposed the idea of a search-advertising partnership with Google as recently as the day before Microsoft made its acquisition offer, according to court papers made public today. In a Q&A prepared for a Jan. 30 internal meeting, Yahoo asserted that such a deal “may not take into account the longer term impact on the competitive market if search becomes an effective monopoly,” the court documents say.

That tidbit — and particularly the reference to the competitive impact — may provide fodder for Microsoft in its attempt to thwart the potential search-advertising partnership between Google and Yahoo. They started discussing such a deal as a means of fending off Microsoft’s bid.

View Full Article: Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 now slated for August

Citing heavy customer feedback, Microsoft officials as high up as Bill Gates himself revealed today that the next public beta of IE8 won’t be going home with TechEd attendees this year.

Facebook releases its open source platform

After last week’s confirmation of plans to make its developers’ platform an open source project, Facebook this week followed through by releasing most of the code that runs its platform, including the most frequently used methods and tags.

Unsealed documents add to Yahoo-Microsoft drama

Newly uncovered documents in Yahoo shareholders’ battle with the company allege that CEO Jerry Yang worked actively to undermine a deal with Microsoft, perhaps in some cases unethically — and possibly illegally.

Unsealed documents shed more light on Microsoft-Yahoo saga

A Delaware judge has unsealed court documents containing new details about Yahoo Inc.’s efforts to ward off Microsoft Corp.’s unsolicited bid to buy the Internet pioneer.

The documents, made available Monday over Yahoo’s objections, shed new light on an employee severance program that would have driven up Microsoft’s expenses in a successful takeover. The records were obtained as part of a shareholder lawsuit filed against Yahoo’s board for resisting Microsoft’s overtures.

Based on Yahoo’s internal estimates, the severance plan would have added $462 million to $2.1 billion to Microsoft’s costs, based on the software maker’s initial offer of $44.4 billion, or $31 per share.

View Full Article: Yahoo News - AP

Microsoft Bets People Use Facebook Chat: Adds to Live Messenger

Microsoft Live Messenger is the latest to integrate Facebook chat, meaning you can talk it up with your Facebook friends directly from Microsofts instant messaging client, according to a report on allfacebook. This integration is a passive and useful way in which Microsoft can utilize the social network into which it invested millions, and further solidifies Facebook chat as a standard and widespread communication tool amongst a majority of users.

View Full Article: Mashable

Windows, IE lose web share to Mac OS X, Linux, Safari, Firefox, iPhone

The trouble with having a huge market share is that the only way to move is down - and that’s exactly what’s happening to Windows and Internet Explorer, according to an new report. The question is how much further are they going to fall?

According to the latest Market Share report from Net Applications, Windows’ share has dropped from 93.28 to 91.13 percent over the last 12 months. What’s taking up the slack? Mostly Mac OS, with a little help from the iPhone. The Mac share has risen from 5.99 to 7.83 percent, and the iPhone’s from 0.04 to 0.16 percent - but more of that later.

View Full Article: iTWire

Yahoo’s latest Messenger beta goes its own way

It’s clearly not a button-down, businesslike IM client: Having experimented with a special Vista version that apparently didn’t go over well, Yahoo now is adding personalized polish to its latest free personal messenger, still in beta.

Facebook’s privacy policies investigated in Canada

The federal privacy commissioner in Canada is now investigating allegations that Facebook may be illegally collecting personal information such as telephone numbers, birthdays, and instant messaging addresses without authorization.