2008 Financial Thread

[Kiwon]

Follow-up on MSFT - YHOO failed deal

It's about Round 3 in this case of corporate chicken.

Yahoo under pressure after deal collapse

By Richard Waters in San Francisco

An expected realignment of the consumer internet sector was thrown into doubt over the weekend after Microsoft’s surprise abandonment of its $46.5bn offer for Yahoo.

The move is set to put pressure on senior executives of both companies, as one of Yahoo’s largest shareholders criticised both sides for failing to agree a deal that would have left Yahoo shareholders with a big gain and given Microsoft a boost in its attempt to compete with Google.

It will also trigger fresh rounds of talks between some of the biggest players in the internet industry as both companies now look for other ways to boost their flagging online businesses, analysts and investors said.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, called off his company’s three-month pursuit of Yahoo in a letter - released publicly on Saturday - to Yahoo founder and chief executive Jerry Yang.

Mr Ballmer said Microsoft had raised its bid to $33 a share, from an original offer of $31, but that Yahoo had continued to hold out for at least $37.

Mr Yang is likely to face the most heated questions from shareholders over his refusal to do more to reach an agreement, with his company’s shares expected to drop sharply from their bid-inflated price of $28.67 at the end of last week.

Bill Miller, portfolio manager at Legg Mason, which owns 6 per cent of Yahoo’s stock, yesterday called on the internet company to mount an immediate stock buy-back worth at least $4bn to demonstrate its confidence in its shares, after turning down an offer that represented a 70 per cent premium to the share price before Microsoft made its offer.

“They had the opportunity to do this, and both sides missed it,” said Mr Miller.

“Yahoo’s management now is in a really difficult position – they have to prove they can get that value back to $37.”

However, Mr Miller reserved his strongest criticism for Microsoft, which he said now faced a position as “a distant number three online” over its refusal to increase its offer by a relatively small amount, at least by the standards of its own financial resources.

“To miss out on a major strategic opportunity that was worth 2 per cent of your market [value] doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Some observers speculated yesterday that Microsoft had taken a tough line on price in the hope that pressure from shareholders would force Mr Yang back to the negotiating table.

Microsoft’s apparent withdrawal “could be tactical”, said Morton Pierce, a New York mergers and acquisitions lawyer, though he added: “In deals of this magnitude, you assume they’ve really thought about it and they’re really walking away.”

Yahoo sought to present the weekend’s events as a chance to return to business as usual, and one person close to the company said it would push ahead and try to complete deals it has discussed in recent weeks with both Google and AOL.

AOL, meanwhile, has also been holding talks with Microsoft, a person close to the situation said at the weekend. Time Warner, AOL’s parent, could ultimately be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the latest turn of events if it leads to a fight between Microsoft and Yahoo for AOL, one investor said. Microsoft has also held talks with News Corp about combining its internet operations with MySpace.

The expected flurry of discussions follows the failure of a deal that would have reshaped the internet landscape, and reflects the pressure on both Mr Yang and Mr Ballmer to show that they have alternatives as they try to narrow the lead of runaway internet leader Google.

[MJZiggy]

Dammit, I was hoping yahoo might actually start to be more compatible with MSN...

[Partial]

Dammit, I was hoping yahoo might actually start to be more compatible with MSN...

Pidgin

[SkinBasket]

Pidgin

This is one of those gay codes right? Now Zool taps his toe and you crawl under the stall partition with your pants around your ankles and your abysmal dong bouncing around like a cocktail wiener on a string?

[Partial]

Pidgin

This is one of those gay codes right? Now Zool taps his toe and you crawl under the stall partition with your pants around your ankles and your abysmal dong bouncing around like a cocktail wiener on a string?

He's onto us

[Kiwon]

Pidgin

This is one of those gay codes right? Now Zool taps his toe and you crawl under the stall partition with your pants around your ankles and your abysmal dong bouncing around like a cocktail wiener on a string?

He's onto us

[Kiwon]

Yahoo's down 22% in pre-market quotes.

Let the bloodbath and recriminations begin.

[Zool]

Pidgin

This is one of those gay codes right? Now Zool taps his toe and you crawl under the stall partition with your pants around your ankles and your abysmal dong bouncing around like a cocktail wiener on a string?

Don't be jealous bitch. I told you long ago that you and I aren't exclusive. I'm free to tap however many times I want, and you're free to be ball gagged in my basement and forced to watch Whats Happenin? reruns.

[woodbuck27]

I think getting a job might be a good place to start...

mj! Your first ? for you:

What do you really want to do? Answer that for you . . .then go for it!

[LL2]

Yahoo's down 22% in pre-market quotes.

Let the bloodbath and recriminations begin.

Yahoo and CEO Yang are a bunch of stupid fucks for not taking the latest Microsoft offer to be bought by a solid company. Google is going to crush Yahoo into a has been.

[Freak Out]

Food prices continue to climb globally so the number of protests and riots will climb even higher. Right now it's Asia and parts of Africa but as commoditeis continue to climb in price more and more people will feel the squeeze and start to rattle some cages.
Food is more expensive up here to begin with because of shipping but I was surprised to see the cost increases that have been put in place over the last couple of weeks. Costco had no rice. People made a run on it for fucks sake.

Soylent green anyone?

[K-town]

Soylent Green is...PEOPLE!

Green people cookies. Zesty.

[Freak Out]

I heard a interesting interview with this guy today so I thought I would post this piece he did earlier in the month. Makes some great points.

America's Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor's Degree

By MARTY NEMKO

Among my saddest moments as a career counselor is when I hear a story like this: "I wasn't a good student in high school, but I wanted to prove that I can get a college diploma. I'd be the first one in my family to do it. But it's been five years and $80,000, and I still have 45 credits to go."

I have a hard time telling such people the killer statistic: Among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later. That figure is from a study cited by Clifford Adelman, a former research analyst at the U.S. Department of Education and now a senior research associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy. Yet four-year colleges admit and take money from hundreds of thousands of such students each year!

Even worse, most of those college dropouts leave the campus having learned little of value, and with a mountain of debt and devastated self-esteem from their unsuccessful struggles. Perhaps worst of all, even those who do manage to graduate too rarely end up in careers that require a college education. So it's not surprising that when you hop into a cab or walk into a restaurant, you're likely to meet workers who spent years and their family's life savings on college, only to end up with a job they could have done as a high-school dropout.

Such students are not aberrations. Today, amazingly, a majority of the students whom colleges admit are grossly underprepared. Only 23 percent of the 1.3 million high-school graduates of 2007 who took the ACT examination were ready for college-level work in the core subjects of English, math, reading, and science.

Perhaps more surprising, even those high-school students who are fully qualified to attend college are increasingly unlikely to derive enough benefit to justify the often six-figure cost and four to six years (or more) it takes to graduate. Research suggests that more than 40 percent of freshmen at four-year institutions do not graduate in six years. Colleges trumpet the statistic that, over their lifetimes, college graduates earn more than nongraduates, but that's terribly misleading. You could lock the collegebound in a closet for four years, and they'd still go on to earn more than the pool of non-collegebound — they're brighter, more motivated, and have better family connections.

Also, the past advantage of college graduates in the job market is eroding. Ever more students attend college at the same time as ever more employers are automating and sending offshore ever more professional jobs, and hiring part-time workers. Many college graduates are forced to take some very nonprofessional positions, such as driving a truck or tending bar.

How much do students at four-year institutions actually learn?

Colleges are quick to argue that a college education is more about enlightenment than employment. That may be the biggest deception of all. Often there is a Grand Canyon of difference between the reality and what higher-education institutions, especially research ones, tout in their viewbooks and on their Web sites. Colleges and universities are businesses, and students are a cost item, while research is a profit center. As a result, many institutions tend to educate students in the cheapest way possible: large lecture classes, with necessary small classes staffed by rock-bottom-cost graduate students. At many colleges, only a small percentage of the typical student's classroom hours will have been spent with fewer than 30 students taught by a professor, according to student-questionnaire data I used for my book How to Get an Ivy League Education at a State University. When students at 115 institutions were asked what percentage of their class time had been spent in classes of fewer than 30 students, the average response was 28 percent.

That's not to say that professor-taught classes are so worthwhile. The more prestigious the institution, the more likely that faculty members are hired and promoted much more for their research than for their teaching. Professors who bring in big research dollars are almost always rewarded more highly than a fine teacher who doesn't bring in the research bucks. Ernest L. Boyer, the late president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, used to say that winning the campus teaching award was the kiss of death when it came to tenure. So, no surprise, in the latest annual national survey of freshmen conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, 44.6 percent said they were not satisfied with the quality of instruction they received. Imagine if that many people were dissatisfied with a brand of car: It would quickly go off the market. Colleges should be held to a much higher standard, as a higher education costs so much more, requires years of time, and has so much potential impact on your life. Meanwhile, 43.5 percent of freshmen also reported "frequently" feeling bored in class, the survey found.

College students may be dissatisfied with instruction, but, despite that, do they learn? A 2006 study supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 50 percent of college seniors scored below "proficient" levels on a test that required them to do such basic tasks as understand the arguments of newspaper editorials or compare credit-card offers. Almost 20 percent of seniors had only basic quantitative skills. The students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the gas station.

Unbelievably, according to the Spellings Report, which was released in 2006 by a federal commission that examined the future of American higher education, things are getting even worse: "Over the past decade, literacy among college graduates has actually declined. … According to the most recent National Assessment of Adult Literacy, for instance, the percentage of college graduates deemed proficient in prose literacy has actually declined from 40 to 31 percent in the past decade. … Employers report repeatedly that many new graduates they hire are not prepared to work, lacking the critical thinking, writing and problem-solving skills needed in today's workplaces."

What must be done to improve undergraduate education?

Colleges should be held at least as accountable as tire companies are. When some Firestone tires were believed to be defective, government investigations, combined with news-media scrutiny, led to higher tire-safety standards. Yet year after year, colleges and universities turn out millions of defective products: students who drop out or graduate with far too little benefit for the time and money spent. Not only do colleges escape punishment, but they are rewarded with taxpayer-financed student grants and loans, which allow them to raise their tuitions even more.

I ask colleges to do no more than tire manufacturers are required to do. To be government-approved, all tires must have — prominently molded into the sidewall — some crucial information, including ratings of tread life, temperature resistance, and traction compared with national benchmarks.

Going significantly beyond the recommendations in the Spellings report, I believe that colleges should be required to prominently report the following data on their Web sites and in recruitment materials:

* Value added. A national test, which could be developed by the major testing companies, should measure skills important for responsible citizenship and career success. Some of the test should be in career contexts: the ability to draft a persuasive memo, analyze an employer's financial report, or use online research tools to develop content for a report.

Just as the No Child Left Behind Act mandates strict accountability of elementary and secondary schools, all colleges should be required to administer the value-added test I propose to all entering freshmen and to students about to graduate, and to report the mean value added, broken out by precollege SAT scores, race, and gender. That would strongly encourage institutions to improve their undergraduate education and to admit only students likely to derive enough benefit to justify the time, tuition, and opportunity costs. Societal bonus: Employers could request that job applicants submit the test results, leading to more-valid hiring decisions.

* The average cash, loan, and work-study financial aid for varying levels of family income and assets, broken out by race and gender. And because some colleges use the drug-dealer scam — give the first dose cheap and then jack up the price — they should be required to provide the average not just for the first year, but for each year.

* Retention data: the percentage of students returning for a second year, broken out by SAT score, race, and gender.

* Safety data: the percentage of an institution's students who have been robbed or assaulted on or near the campus.

* The four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates, broken out by SAT score, race, and gender. That would allow institutions to better document such trends as the plummeting percentage of male graduates in recent years.

* Employment data for graduates: the percentage of graduates who, within six months of graduation, are in graduate school, unemployed, or employed in a job requiring college-level skills, along with salary data.

* Results of the most recent student-satisfaction survey, to be conducted by the institutions themselves.

* The most recent accreditation report. The college could include the executive summary only in its printed recruitment material, but it would have to post the full report on its Web site.

Being required to conspicuously provide this information to prospective students and parents would exert long-overdue pressure on colleges to improve the quality of undergraduate education. What should parents and guardians of prospective students do?

* If your child's high-school grades and test scores are in the bottom half for his class, resist the attempts of four-year colleges to woo him. Colleges make money whether or not a student learns, whether or not she graduates, and whether or not he finds good employment. Let the buyer beware. Consider an associate-degree program at a community college, or such nondegree options as apprenticeship programs (see http://www.khake.com), shorter career-preparation programs at community colleges, the military, and on-the-job training, especially at the elbow of a successful small-business owner.

* If your student is in the top half of her high-school class and is motivated to attend college for reasons other than going to parties and being able to say she went to college, have her apply to perhaps a dozen colleges. Colleges vary less than you might think (at least on factors you can readily discern in the absence of the accountability requirements I advocate above), yet financial-aid awards can vary wildly. It's often wise to choose the college that requires you to pay the least cash and take out the smallest loan. College is among the few products that don't necessarily give you what you pay for — price does not indicate quality.

* If your child is one of the rare breed who knows what he wants to do and isn't unduly attracted to academics or to the Animal House environment that characterizes many college-living arrangements, then take solace in the fact that countless other people have successfully taken the noncollege road less traveled. Some examples: Maya Angelou, David Ben-Gurion, Richard Branson, Coco Chanel, Walter Cronkite, Michael Dell, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Alex Haley, Ernest Hemingway, Wolfgang Puck, John D. Rockefeller Sr., Ted Turner, Frank Lloyd Wright, and nine U.S. presidents, from Washington to Truman.

College is a wise choice for far fewer people than are currently encouraged to consider it. It's crucial that they evenhandedly weigh the pros and cons of college versus the aforementioned alternatives. The quality of their lives may depend on that choice.

Marty Nemko is a career counselor based in Oakland, Calif., and has been an education consultant to 15 college presidents. He is author of four books, including The All-in-One College Guide: A Consumer Activist's Guide to Choosing a College (Barron's, 2004).

[Kiwon]

Yahoo's down 22% in pre-market quotes.

Let the bloodbath and recriminations begin.

Yahoo and CEO Yang are a bunch of stupid fucks for not taking the latest Microsoft offer to be bought by a solid company. Google is going to crush Yahoo into a has been.

House cleaning effort underway? Microsoft might yet get another shot at a takeover.

Yahoo shares jump on reports Icahn may try to oust board

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Shares of Yahoo (YHOO) jumped more than 5% Tuesday on reports that billionaire investor Carl Icahn is snapping up the Internet company's stock in preparation for a possible attempt to replace Yahoo's board after the directors turned down Microsoft's $47.5 billion takeover offer.

Icahn has bought as many as 50 million Yahoo shares, both CNBC and The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. That would give Icahn a 3.6% stake in the Internet pioneer.

The financier, who didn't immediately return calls seeking comment, is known for shaking up slumping companies. He could spearhead a campaign to oust Yahoo's 10 directors for not accepting Microsoft's final offer of $33 a share.

The deadline for nominating an alternate slate of directors to Yahoo's board is Thursday.

Yahoo rose $1.30, or 5.15%, to close at $26.56.

[Kiwon]

ARBA has been looking good lately - $8.50 to $13.50

Check out the one-month chart: ARBA one-month chart