Yahoo Spent $36 Million Not to Get Bought Out - According to a SEC filing, Yahoo shelled out $36 million in the first half of 2008 to the outside advisers that helped the company avoid getting bought out by Microsoft Corp. and the proxy threat from activist investor Carl Icahn. Yahoo hired investment banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Moelis Co., and the law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher Flom, after Microsoft made its initial $44.6 billion offer. Yahoo’s $36 million tab, amounts to about 5 percent of the $673 ... read more ...

Tucows Reports For Quarter Ending Jun 30: Parking Revenues Down - Tucows reported its financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2008 today. Net income per share fell to $.02 for the six months ending June 30, 2008 against $.05 per share profit for the first six months of last year. Elliot Noss, President and CEO of Tucows. is quoted as saying: “Our portfolio of high value domain names continued to make an impressive contribution. We note that the second quarter of 2007 included a large $3 million bulk sale of domain names.” As you will recall ... read more ...

AdWeek: Advertisers Against Yahoo-Google Deal - According to an article in AdWeek within the next month, the Department of Justice will decide whether to block the deal Google struck with Yahoo to serve ads on some of its search results pages. The companies are set to implement the deal in early October. The DOJ has asked a broad range of executives for input into what the deal will mean for the ad industry. Microsoft, is urging agencies to come out against the agreement. “We’re concerned about the Yahoo! deal,” said Rob Norman, CEO of WPP-owned ... read more ...

Yahoo Gaining on Google?? - A new study from search-marketing firm Covario,  shows that customers representing more than 120 technology brands at major tech companies such as Adobe, Lenovo and Intel, spent 14.3% of their search advertising budgets on Yahoo in the second quarter of 2008, up from 10.3% for the prior quarter, but still down from 18% a year ago. Google’s share of those customers’ search advertising dollars declined to 81.2% down from 85.6% in the first quarter of the year. Overall Google’s overall search ... read more ...

Google Loses $1 Billion On AOL? - On Friday Google said its 5%  stake in Time Warner’s AOL unit may be worth less than the $1 billion they paid for it in 2006. “We believe our investment in AOL may be impaired,” Google said in its latest quarterly financial filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Google said it would continue to review its investment for impairment, and financial write-downs could be required in the future. In a deal announced in December 2005 and which closed the following year, Google paid ... read more ...

Marchex Reports Earnings - Marchex reported its financial results for the quarter ending after closing of trading today: Revenue was $37.4 million for the second quarter of 2008, compared to $34.7 million for the same period of 2007 GAAP net income applicable to common stockholders was $509,000 for the second quarter of 2008 or $0.01 per diluted share. This compares to GAAP net income applicable to common stockholders of $354,000 or $0.01 per diluted share for the same period of 2007. Adjusted ... read more ...

Large Yahoo Shareholder Wants a Probe of Vote - One of Yahoo largest and most critical shareholders, Capital Research Global Investors, said on Monday it had asked for a probe of last week’s shareholder vote which showed strong support for Chief Executive Jerry Yang. Yang has been under pressure for months over failed negotiations to sell the company to Microsoft and questions about Yang’s leadership, but last Friday’s shareholder vote appeared to show strong support for him and his team. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the ... read more ...

Dark Blue Sea Financials: A Reflection on a Domain Business: And the Not Good - Dark Blue Sea a public company, part of our Domain Stock Parking Index, released its financial performance for the quarter ending June 30, 2008 today. Dark Blue Sea owns Fabulous.com. Their reported financial  results I believe is a reflection of the current status of the domain industry and therefore is important to read and understand even if you have no stock in Dark Blue Sea. I think the most interesting stats contained in the financial report is the sustained decline in parking revenue derived ... read more ...

Google To Start Venture Capital Arm - According to reports Google is working on plans to start a venture capital arm. According to the report the group will be led by David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer How the group will be structured and what sort of investments it is likely to target remain unclear. The Mountain View, Calif., Web giant has long preferred to buy companies rather than invest in them, and has plenty of cash to keep doing so. But it has invested millions of ... read more ...

Baidu Profit adult 87% - Baidu.com China’s leading search engine, and a member of our domain stock parking index, second-quarter profit soared 87 percent over the year-earlier period on rapid growth in revenue from smaller advertisers. Net income for the quarter ending June 30 was 265 million yuan ($38.6 million), or 7.62 yuan ($1.11) per share, on revenue of 802.6 million yuan ($117 million), the company said. Revenue was double that of the same quarter in 2007. Baidu said the rise in revenue came from growth in the number ... read more ...

Microsoft Executive who Lead Charge to Buy Yahoo Quits - The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the head of Microsoft’s online business, who led the company’s bid to buy Yahoo,  is leaving the Microsoft for Juniper Networks. Kevin Johnson, is president of Microsoft’s Platforms and Services Division, which includes both the online services business and Windows software for personal computers. The Journal also reported that Johnson’s departure will be followed by a reorganization of the business unit he oversaw. The Journal reports that Mr. Johnson ... read more ...

Has any Company Ever Handled a Public Negotiation Worse than Yahoo - As we all know Yahoo turned down Microsoft’s offer to buy them for the first time over 2 years ago at $40 a share. Then in January when Yahoo was floundering at $19 a share, Microsoft came along and offered $31. Yahoo said there stock was less no less than $37 a share and turned Microsoft down. Microsoft reportedly raised their offer, informally to $33, Yahoo said no again, they wanted $37. Carl Icahn took a large position in Yahoo stock and is seeking to replace the board of directors with a ... read more ...

Banks.com Stock Sinks; IRS.com in Jeopardy? - Banks.com one of the stocks in our domain parking stock index took a huge hit today down 29% to $.17 a share. The company which was trading over $1 a share in March, disclosed on July 7th that it was in default of a certain “Investment Agreement” in the aggregate principal amount of $7.0 million  which could cause them to lose their prized domain name IRS.com According to the SEC filing: “””Upon the Company’s failure to meet its payment obligations, or the failure to comply with any ... read more ...

News From Today’s Hearings on Yahoo-Microsoft-Google - Congress held 2 separate hearings today on the The Yahoo-Google-proposed partnership. Both the Senate Judiciary subcommittee and the House Judiciary subcommittee held hearings and here are the highlights: Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl, D-Wis., stressed that his panel will look at whether the deal, which will give Yahoo access to certain Google advertising tools, “will reduce Yahoo to nothing more than the latest satellite in the Google orbit.”. House Judiciary Chairman ... read more ...

Yahoo-Google-Microsoft Show Hits Capital Hill This Week - This week Google is off to capital hill to try to get congress to OK their deal with Yahoo. In written testimony submitted by Google to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the company’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, said the “ad deal with Yahoo is good for consumers, advertisers and Web publishers”. “The whole system becomes more efficient: People see and click on more ads that are useful to them, publishers get more revenue from ads on their sites and advertisers get more potentially ... read more ...

Yahoo Launches BOSS (Build Your Own Search) - Yahoo is reportly set to annouce today a new service called “Build Your Own Search,” or BOSS. With this system any Web site will be able to assemble a search engine using Yahoo’s system for indexing information and images on the Internet. Yahoo says it is going to provide access to a set of tools that would cost more than $300 million to build from scratch. All Yahoo wants in return is the right to display ads alongside the results of any search engine that piggybacks on its technology. Two ... read more ...

Microsoft Backs Icahn Bid For Yahoo - Microsoft announced today that it was backing investor Carl Icahn’s hostile takeover bid to replace the Yahoo’s board of directors. Microsoft also stated that in the event Icanh was successful, they would reconsider purchasing Yahoo’s search business or go back to making an offer for the entire company. This should be welcome news to domainers who have been dreading a Google – Yahoo deal. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...

Microsoft to Make New Bid For Yahoo Search?? - According to a report today by the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is preparing a new bid for Yahoo’s search business and has approached other media companies about joining it in a deal that would effectively lead to Yahoo’s breakup. According to the Journal. Microsoft has already held talks with Time Warner and News Corp. Also accoring to the report representatives from Microsoft have, met with Icahn to encourage him to press his proxy contest as a way to keep pressure on Yahoo to enter into ... read more ...

Yahoo Exec’s Vote on a Google Deal with their Feet and Run for a Door - It’s been a interesting week at Yahoo. According to reports many key executive are rushing to the exits at Yahoo. Qi Lu, an executive vice-president in charge of Yahoo’s search and advertising technology; Brad Garlinghouse, a senior vice-president who oversees communications tools like mail; and Vish Makhijani, a senior vice-president involved in search, are all reported to be leaving. Mr. Garlinghouse is the best known for his 2006 memo, when he said Yahoo was spreading itself too thin and advocated ... read more ...

Yahoo Launches New E-Mail Service - Yahoo announced today two new e-mail domains that will give users the chance to register for an  e-mail address using the new Yahoo! e-mail address at ymail.com and rocketmail.com. Yahoo! Mail is the number one Web mail service in the world with more than 260 million users worldwide E-mail addresses at the new domains will have the same Yahoo! Mail features as addresses at the yahoo.com domain, including: Unlimited storage – Yahoo! Mail provides all users with free ... read more ...

Icahn Wants to glow Yahoo CEO Yang - According to a report in the Wall Street Journal Carl Icahn says he wants wants to get rid of Jerry Yang as Yahoo’s CEO for botching the Microsoft (MSFT) bid. Icahn believes Yahoo’s board will have to be fired to lure Microsoft back to the bargaining table. Icahn asserted in a Tuesday interview with The Wall Street Journal that Microsoft is unlikely to renew its courtship as long as Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and the company’s eight other directors remain on the job. Icahn is putting ... read more ...

The Public Direct Navigation Company You Never Heard of - A public company, Elysium Internet, Inc. (OTCBB: USBF) in a press release today today announced that it has closed the acquisition of Pediatricians.com, Psychiatrists.com and Podiatrists.com in a deal valued at $1 Million. Elysium Internet Chairman and CEO Scott Gallagher commented, “With today’s domain acquisitions we have added three of the best currently available dot com domains in the directory space to our growing portfolio. We successfully launched Therapists.net a short time ago. The ... read more ...

Murdoch: Google is “the biggest association in a World” & Icahn’s Proxy Bid for Yahoo will Fail - In a report by Fortune magazine, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch predicted Wednesday that Carl Icahn’s proxy fight for control of Yahoo will fail, but it will “make him a few hundred million dollars.” Murdoch also said that at one point, Yahoo and his company tried to work out their own deal. He said the two companies talked about adding MySpace, News Corp.’s social network, to Yahoo’s portal. But it never came to fruition, he said. Even without the Yahoo deal, Murdoch said News Corp.’s ... read more ...

Google Paid Clicks Increase: Yahoo and Microsoft’s Fall in April - According to a report by ComScore, Inc. released today, Google’s growth in “paid clicks,” rose sharply in April. Meanwhile paid clicks for Microsoft  and Yahoo declined. Google’s paid clicks increased 20% in April compared with the same period a year earlier. Yahoo saw a 4.4% decline in paid clicks in April compared with the period a year earlier and Microsoft (MSFT) saw a 9% decline. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...

Yahoo Postpones Annual Meeting - Yahoo postponed it’s annual meeting which was schudeled for July 3, to an undetermined date in late July, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This is the second time Yahoo has postponed its annual meeting, usually held in May or June. The previous delay, announced in March, gave Yahoo more time to explore alternatives to Microsoft’s unsolicited takeover bid, which was withdrawn this month in a pricing disagreement. Arthur Kozel, resgined today as a director of ... read more ...