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Yahoo Seeking Partnership With News Corp.
rattlesoft tips us to a Washington Post report that Yahoo is now seeking a partnership with News Corp. A related Reuters article notes that analysts are skeptical of such a deal. From the Post:
"Yahoo is talking with a number of potential partners, possibly as a way to either stave off future Microsoft offers or in an effort to drive up the software giant's offer. The talks between News Corp. and Yahoo ... may signal a resumption of discussions that took place last summer between the two media giants that quieted during the fall. Such a combination would make News Corp. the largest single shareholder in a Yahoo/Fox Interactive unit. That would marry the world's most popular social-networking site, MySpace, with Yahoo's 4 billion page views per month to make a formidable opponent for Google."
Just what we need -- another of the major players in Web content to fall under the News Corporation sphere of influence. As though they don't already do enough harm as it is, with their holdings in the traditional press...
I realize they're competing in market share and some products, but would that make them opponents? As far as I'm concerned, I use Google search (and a lot of other Google stuff) and this deal wouldn't make me change anything.
I don't see this as competing with Google's targeted ads at all (except in market share, and it's nowhere near enough to be a serious competition in that).
Maybe I'm missing something though.
Tie two birds together: although they have four wings, they cannot fly. (The blind man)
What Yahoo is trying to say is : "Anything but Microsoft. ANYTHING !"
this one time... at computer camp... I shoved a linux cd in my windows computer
Seems Yahoo are quite familiar with the concept of 'Friends With Benefits'.
Although in the case of Microsoft they're also familiar with daterape.
Sounds like a marriage made in heaven.
Ed
News corp would definitely use this to spread their right-wing political crap.
A major search engine aligned with Faux News. Talk about a propaganda mouthpiece...
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
I've known this for a week, I started to wonder why Slashdot didn't jump on it sooner
Microsoft? News Corp?
How about Halliburton put in a bid just to make it an even trifecta.
I wonder if Halliburton buy a search engine, would Bush finally be able to find Bin-Laden?
Wow... so basically, it's a choice between Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates now? Wonderful.
(Not that I use Yahoo much myself, but unfortunately, Yahoo bought Flickr a while ago, so I'm forced to deal with them now...)
Fuck them, they ruin everything they get their greedy little mitts on; latest example is one of my favorite Firefox extensions, FoxyTunes. They were bought out by Yahoo! and subsequently had to replace the lyrics query that went to the open LyricWiki with Y!Music, which hardly contains any lyrics to the songs I listen to. Oh, and of course Yahoo! Music doesn't allow you to upload lyrics you transcribed yourself. I've started hating Yahoo! with a really serious passion lately...
-- Language is a virus from outer space.
I think the most important message here is that search engines should be obliged under law to insure the integrity of their search algorithms and that any deviation is documented and transparent. It would be scary if one of the worlds biggest search engines overweighted Fox News in searches for factual information, downplaying Reuters, etc. I'm not saying Fox makes stuff up but they certainly have their own, shall we say, house style.
I think I'd rather MS bought Yahoo!, come to think of it...
-1 not first post
"Yahoo says they are seeking a partnership with News Corp" would be more accurate.
Yahoo needs to justify to its shareholders why they did not close the deal with Microsoft.
This moves allows them to buy some time to negotiate with them and maybe increase their offer.
"The founder of social networking giant MySpace has claimed that the sale of the business to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation last year for $580 million was a scandal and has demanded an investigation into his allegations that it was sold too cheaply.
Greenspan alleges that the management of the company and chief executive Richard Rosenblatt in particular of hiding vital financial information about MySpace parent Intermix Media's performance in order to convince the shareholders that $580 million was a fair price for the business.
'News Corp.'s valuation has increased by $12 billion since the transaction occurred just one year ago, and there are several independent analysts today that agree that Myspace is worth tens of billions of dollars," Greenspan said. "It is time everyone knew the truth about the 'hijacking' of Myspace and the individuals responsible for this eye popping theft.'
Greenspan said that he found internal company reports which said that MySpace revenue grew at a rate of 1,289% a year between 2003 and 2005. The growth of the whole of the company, which included other units, was 52%, which is the figure which most shareholders were given, says Greenspan.
Greenspan made $47 million from the sale of the company, which he left in 2003 amid an informal SEC inquiry and restatements of accounts, according to Reuters."
http://www.out-law.com/page-7372
All this will do is obfuscate Yahoo! (tm) that much more. I like this deal more than the MS one, just because I shudder to think of the effect of the loss of either hotmail or yahoo mail or yahoo IM or MSN Instant Messenger on millions of users. And to date, I havent seen much positive come from the companies MS has procured, usually their services wither and die, while some parts get "assimilated".
This potential deal does not make Yahoo/News Corp competitive with Google. Yahoo gets millions of hits from users who are looking for YAHOO CONTENT and SERVICES, Google gets millions of hits from users looking for other sites content or using Google's services which dont cleanly map against Yahoo. The only arguably competitive services are search, web email, and maps. I would argue that yahoo is already equal in search quality, close to parity in web email, and much superior in maps (google maps has given me faulty directions and even put addresses in the wrong places enough times that I switched back to Yahoo for that service). The thing is though, there is no incentive for users to switch over to Yahoo from Google. In order for them to actually line up competitively, Yahoo would require major architectural changes in the way they present themselves on the web, which would throw off many years of work for questionable results. I don't see it. I think if Yahoo! is going to be profitable again, they need to come up with "the next Big Thing", simply looking over at Google and saying were gonna compete with them isnt going to do it. Their web-presence is already cluttered to death, adding to it won't attract google's core search audience (people looking for clean simple accurate web search interface).
Does anyone else shudder at the thought of Myspace & Yahoo users as a collective being unleashed on the Internet ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
That Rupert Murdoch is actually MUCH worse than Bill Gates?
Way to go yahoo, you found the one company that I consider more evil than microsoft. Does this mean every time you search something on yahoo now, you give the republican party a nickel?
I think it's awesome when a total dick asks the prettiest girl at the dance to go home with him, but she says no and then asks to go home with a giant asshole.
When is Slashdot going to add a -1 moderation option for people who actually RTFA?
Myspace is not exactly atheist friendly - would yahoo go the same way? http://www.secularstudents.org/node/1933
they would be like two peas in a pod...
Yahoo being the street whore & Microsoft being the ghetto pimp that drives a purple Lincoln...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Lisa: "Dad, that's Fox."
Homer: "Ahh! Undo, undo!"
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
1. Drop the "!". So '90s (and such a setup for disappointment - very '90s).
2. Let anyone with a Yahoo account stream from a Yahoo page any music they want for free (Yahoo pays the royalties). Put ads in the streams, just like radio.
3. SURVIVE! (On the profits. Yes, you can still use a "!" occasionaly when you pull it off.)
--
make install -not war
There - fixed that for you.
Oh, and I agree.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Good point, but I suppose that's because Yahoo! doesn't own a crappy machine translation subsidiary. When they partnered with Opera Mini (the browser version for mobile devices) they removed Google not only as the default search engine but also as an option from the drop-down - and then put Yahoo! Search in its place. I wouldn't complain if they replaced stuff with something of equal or better value, but this "it's ours, so you have to use it no matter how crappy it is" attitude kinda pisses me off.
-- Language is a virus from outer space.
The only thing separating Rupert Murdoch from pretty much duplicating every bit of damage William Randolph Hearst caused is Murdoch paving 1/3 of a coastal California county and building "La Cuesta Inquisición" (a.k.a. Murdoch Castle).
I wouldn't mind if Yahoo ran MySpace. Maybe they could actually fix^H^H^Hcompletely rewrite it.
I agree. They are both bad choices and I would wish for an independent Yahoo over any combination. News corporation tries to stiffle thought with their deliberately dumbed down Infotainment masquerading as News, while MS tries to stifle innovation that would compete with their windows monopoly. In retrospect, I think the MS is the lesser of the two evils here since Gates is mostly greed motivated and not power or control oriented like Murdoch. Gates does not care what you think as long as you run windows, while Murdoch is potentially more sinister. Unfortunately, the number of White knights who can come up with $50B is pretty small. GE has MSNBC linkage. How about Disney with its ABC News franchise. Or Vivendi which would bring Canal Plus, and Universal studios into the mix. Has anyone talked to Vivendi?
Personally, I would rather Software/internet giants interbreed than mix with the vapid likes of News Corp. At the very least, they don't have conniving schemes to influence public opinion like a Murdochsoft would do. They already have large amounts of influence with Myspace, etc. No, I am not fearing a conspiracy, I do not like the fact that you have a media owner-turned web giant.
Good people who work at Yahoo are running for the hills. Even if they stay independent, there won't be anyone left to implement Jerry's secret plans to save Yahoo.
I can see it now. Searching for Barack Obama will turn out 50 links about how he is a Jihadist who supported Saddam Hussein in plotting 9/11.
9/11.
Dad, that's Fox!
Auargh!!! Undo! Undo!
At the top of the screen, there will be a Fox ticker that can never be shut off, that reminds users to:
/.)
"Watch the best season yet of the same old American Idol, tonight on FOX!"
"Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader tonight on FOX!"
"See House yet again solve a medical mystery, tonight on FOX!"
"Our best ripoff of a movie yet: Terminator, tonight on FOX!"
"Yet Another Stupid Gameshow/Reality TV/Lame Scripted Show, tonight on FOX"
"See House reruns every day of the week so we don't have to make up new TV shows, tonight on FOX!"
"24 is back and more generic than ever, tonight on FOX!"
"Will they escape from yet another prison? Find out on Prison Break, tonight on FOX!"
Then Fox will set Yahoo's Internet search algorithms to block any website that criticizes President Bush, the War in Iraq, or any other issue someone pays them money to censor (most likely that would include
Any search for a CBS show would be blocked. When a user attempts to search for a CBS show, Stewie from the Family Guy will pop up on the screen and taunt the user for not watching Fox's stupid reality TV and explain to the user why the only shows on Fox are "reality" shows.
Any political Yahoo Groups will be disbanded immediately unless they agree to listen to Fox.
Any searches for "(the name of a fox show) + torrent download" will flag you and your address will be sent to the FBI for arrest.
Any blogs that criticize Fox News will be removed from Yahoo's cache.
What a horrible thought. The media conglomerates own TV to keep everyone preoccupied will the sick money obsessed people set up New World Order...
The truth of how MS strong armed PC providers (to the point that they, from clients, became hostages of MS's) is widely known.
If you are tired of hearing the truth is none of other people's concern frankly.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Fox news built its audience by (claiming to) fill in the hole in coverage left by the left-wing old media. It seemed to be doing that by including (but not limiting itself to) coverage of the conservative side of things. It did seem to be giving the libertarian viewpoint short shrift. But it still gave the appearance of filling in the big dead spot.
But over the last year it has shown itself to be massively biased, not just toward conservative positions, but toward a PARTICULAR one of the four-or-so major factions - the neoconservatives. As the primary campaigns progressed Fox News became progressively more blatant in its opposition to, and suppression of, the other factions' issues, positions, and candidates.
This was particularly visible with their hatchet job on the candidacy of the Ron Paul (a libertarian-faction conservative). But with a little looking you can easily see a similar treatment of the other candidates and factions.
You'll find lots of libertarians, libertarian-conservatives, and a fair number of non-neoconservative conservatives among the denizens of the internet - including those who post to Slashdot. So don't be surprised to see slams on Fox News (and their parent Newscorp) from right-leaning people who, last year, might have strongly defended them.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
...are boring. I use tired and boring interchangeably. If I'm not bored then I'm usually also not tired.
There are lots of tired memes on Slashdot and bash MS is the strongest. Yes, there are lots of bash company X memes and they all follow the same basic script, but MS is the bugbear of Slashdot. For Slashdot to maintain relevance, there needs to be analysis that goes beyond knee jerk reactions.
This current case is a stunning example. MS offers to buy Yahoo. Slashdotters unite in dismay and dread. Yahoo rejects MS. Slashdotters unite in rejoicing. Yahoo approaches News Corp. Slashdotters slap their heads and silently weep.
As far as strong arming PC makers, there was a lot of back and forth on both sides, as there is in all business. MS won for the reasons I outlined. Linux has benefited from all of the commodity HW developed to support the PC, among other things. My distrust of IBM and Apple go back a lot farther then my distrust of MS.
If News International took over, would that clause (or its replacement) mean that Yahoo users weren't allowed to criticise NI or their dealings on Yahoo forums, on pain of having their membership (and email, etc.) shut down? p And would "NI Yahoo" be allowed to transfer user details and histories and emails to its newly-affiliated NI divisions?
By buying Yahoo, or forming a partnership with them, would NI be buying the right to use any Yahoo user-data for their own ends, without breaking any laws? If Yahoo Mail really is the most-used mail service on the web (as claimed), then that could be an invaluable data-mining resource for a news organisation that likes to cultivate influence with politicians.
Eric Baird