可恶的微软，今天将我半年来做空雅虎的利润全都抢劫去了

我认为雅虎不会这样窝囊，不会接受吞并。

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) went public Friday with an offer to buy Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) for $44.6 billion, a move designed to create a more credible competitor to industry leader Google Inc. (GOOG) and deepen Microsoft's position in the market for online business software.

The unsolicited approach, outlined by Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer in a letter sent Thursday night to Yahoo's board and published Friday, is aimed at pressing Yahoo to agree to a combination it rejected a year ago. Yahoo acknowledged the proposal and said it would be evaluated "carefully and promptly."

The offer, for $31 a share in cash and stock, represents a 62% premium to Yahoo's closing price Thursday. It comes offer comes as Yahoo continues to struggle against Google in the race for online-advertising revenue and Internet- search market share despite efforts to upgrade its systems. Yahoo's shares have lost about 40% of their value over the past three months.

"While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! that we are proposing," Ballmer said in the letter to Yahoo's board.

Yahoo shares jumped 45% to $27.88, but haven't topped $31, indicating the market doesn't expect a higher competing bid. Microsoft fell 5.4% to $30.87. Google, already down after issuing weaker than expected fourth-quarter results Thursday evening, was trading 9.2% lower early Friday. The announcement pushed U.S. stock index futures higher, though the gains all but evaporated following a worse than expected payroll report.

A deal would bring together two pioneers in their respective industries that stagnated as new competitors did a better job of adapting to changing technology and the habits of users. It's unclear how well a combination of those cultures would work. Microsoft is widely viewed as a lumbering technology giant struggling to become more nimble, while Yahoo is trying to recapture the spark of its more free-wheeling days as an Internet startup.

Yahoo, however, would add a commanding presence in Internet content and users to Microsoft's deep pockets and near monopoly over the desktop software that enables most routine computer use.

"In our view there is a compelling case that says yes, although the risks of a culture mismatch and potential employee attrition would have to be managed carefully," Goldman Sachs analyst Sarah Friar said in a note.

Morgan Stanley (MS) and Blackstone Group LP (BX) are advising Microsoft on the offer.

Microsoft said Yahoo holders would be able to trade each of their shares for $ 31 in cash or 0.9509 of a Microsoft share, pro-rated so that no more than half of the overall purchase price is paid in cash. The deal values Yahoo at 65 times earnings. Currently, it trades at 40 times earnings, according to FactSet Research. Yahoo shares haven't traded at $31 since November. Microsoft has about $21 billion in cash and short-term investments, just under enough to cover the cash component of the deal.

The offer shows a nimbleness on Microsoft's part that long would have seemed out of character. The company has moved more aggressively recently, hiring a number of outsiders and stealing a march on competitors by buying a $240 million stake in Internet phenomenon Facebook Inc. The bid for Yahoo is in part an effort to get ahead of the threat posed to its core software business by online distribution models and takes advantage of Yahoo's failure to reignite its business.

The companies held talks about partnering or merging in late 2006 and early 2007. Those talks included the potential of a merger proposal, but Yahoo told Microsoft in February it wasn't interest in being acquired. Ballmer in his letter noted Yahoo based its decision at the time on hopes for a turnaround led by the long-awaited overhaul to its search-advertising system dubbed Project Panama.

"A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved," Ballmer wrote.

Microsoft noted the market for online advertising is "increasingly dominated by one player. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo can offer competitive choice while better fulfilling the needs of customers and partners."

Microsoft and Yahoo each have struggled to get bigger in Internet searches and search advertising despite heavy investment. Google was by far the most-used U.S. search engine in December, with a 58.4% market share, compared with 22.9% for No. 2 Yahoo and 9.8% for No. 3 Microsoft, according to data from ComScore Inc. (SCOR).

"The fact is that in this particular industry, scale matters," Kevin Johnson, Microsoft's president of platforms and services, said in an interview.

The company added the deal would also result in "combined engineering talent to accelerate innovation," a hint that Microsoft can't alone take on Google with its current staff. Microsoft said it would offer "significant retention packages" to employees, executives and engineers across Yahoo.

Microsoft expects at least $1 billion in annual cost savings and revenue enhancements from a deal, which it says could close in the second half of the year.

Takeover speculation fired back up after Yahoo late Tuesday posted a drop in fourth-quarter net income and issued a 2008 outlook that fell short of analysts' expectations. Goldman Sachs analyst John Marshall, in a report published Friday, said the chances of a Microsoft bid for Yahoo had risen and recommended buying options on Yahoo. He cited the growing importance of the online services business to Microsoft. The software giant also cited that business, which involves licensing companies to use constantly updated software applications accessed via the Internet.

Speculation about a Yahoo buyout has swirled since last year, when Microsoft's interest in such a deal was reported. Buying Yahoo would theoretically place Microsoft as significant competitor in the Internet search market, where it has so far lagged behind both Yahoo and Google. Microsoft, which has thriving software businesses that could fund a much deeper foray into Internet markets, hadn't actively dispelled rumors it was considering an acquisition of Yahoo.

Microsoft said it will host a conference call to discuss the proposal at 8:30 a.m. EST. The company is to present a strategic update for analysts Monday in New York.

做空雅虎 made sense.  But you are not professionals.  You didn't think that there was a solution that microsoft might buy yahoo out.  做空 is a risky business.

Years ago.  I saw Microsoft signed contract with a telecommunication company that microsoft would use their network for their internet traffics.  That company was at 1 dollar going to be unlisted and bankrupt then.  I thought that no way microsoft would sign the service deal with the company was going out of business.  So I bought 10000 shares, 1 dollar a share.  First day, it jumped 10%, my 10,000 dollars made me 1000 dollars in 1 day.  Next day, the company claimed that all its stocks had no value.  All its debts become the new stocks of the company.  So all its share holders got screwed.  But the company, the ceo and its staff would have a bright new future, with the new owner they would have huge service contracts from microsoft, and they have no debts (because the debts converted to the new stocks of the company) any more.

I was not a professional.  I only bet that microsoft would not sign a years service contract with a company that had huge debts and going to be bankrupt.  I didn't know they could just claim all stocks have no value and then covert all debts to new stocks.  And Microsoft got know that deal before they signed up with them.

我在27部位做空雅虎，接着它发烧到34，面对亏空我坚强地顶了下来，然后就开始享受虚拟成果直到19，感觉越来越妙，心也就越来越贪，哪里还知道见好就收，最后让万恶的微软当头一棒。好在损失还有限，决定继续顶下去，大不了再回34。

微软这一棍算是轻的，和去年它那阴狠之极的一刀相比，回头有时间再来唠叨唠叨。

你去年没有做空aqnt吧？那可是一夜间翻了个大跟斗。

I don't have money myself to play stocks now.   But I checked that stock once a while for a friend who hated to use computer.  Saw it dropped from 80 to less than 1 dollar, and grew back, 10, 20, 30 and then sold out more than 60 to microsoft in the past few years.

Yahoo is not going to have too much value if it wants to run as it is now.  Yahoo's value is that they have the value for microsoft.  I think google will "offer" yahoo a hand, so microsoft will take longer and cost more to finally buy yahoo out.  Due to this, I think yahoo will be up to more than 40.  But it is just talk the talk and I have no money to walk the walk.  So nobody should listen to me.

Actually I DID, and finally lost triple !!!

well, don't feel too bad.  when you talked about microsoft stab you in the back, I knew it got to be aqnt.  that was the only stock i had been watching since i lost almost all the money that i can play with 6 years ago in the stock.  

i had been watching that stock when it is still called avea.

I invested 60,000 dollars in the stock market, got 6000 left.  And 4 years ago, i only did a few trades, that was the aqnt.  because i was checking this stock for a friend who didn't use computer.  and i saw it bounced up and down around 3-4, so i used the 6000 dollars i left, did a few trades, bought when it was 3 and sell when it was 4, only made a few hundreds dollars and then watched it went higher and higher and had no nerve to get back in.  from then, i believed that to make the money in the investments you got to be like warren buffet, hold.  if i hold it for 4 years, it would be 2000%.  and i could get all my stock loss back and double the original capital i put in.