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By the end of 1994, Yahoo! had already received one million hits. The Yahoo! domain was created on January 18, 1995.<ref>{{citeweb|title=WHOIS information for: yahoo.com:|url=http://whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=yahoo&tld=com|publisher=''whois.net''|accessdate=2008-11-08}}</ref> Yang and Filo realized their website had massive business potential, and on March 1, 1995, Yahoo! was [[Incorporation (business)|incorporated]].<ref>{{citeweb|title=Inventing Yahoo!|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/events/articles/web/20060412-yahoo-internet-search-engine-jerry-yang-david-filo-america-online-google-ipo-email.shtml|publisher=''[[American Heritage (magazine)]]''|accessdate=2008-02-22}}</ref> On April 5, 1995, [[Michael Moritz]] of [[Sequoia Capital]] provided Yahoo! with two rounds of venture capital, raising approximately $3 million.<ref>{{citeweb|author=[[Eric Schmidt]]|url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/article/0,28804,1595326_1615737_1616199,00.html|title=The Time 100 - Michael Moritz|publisher=''[[Time (magazine)]]''|accessdate=2008-11-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/timeline.cfm|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080213120416/http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/timeline.cfm|archivedate=2008-02-13|title=Yahoo Company Timeline|accessdate=2008-08-18}}</ref> On April 12, 1996, Yahoo! had its [[initial public offering]], raising $33.8 million dollars, by selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.
By the end of 1994, Yahoo! had already received one million hits. The Yahoo! domain was created on January 18, 1995.<ref>{{citeweb|title=WHOIS information for: yahoo.com:|url=http://whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=yahoo&tld=com|publisher=''whois.net''|accessdate=2008-11-08}}</ref> Yang and Filo realized their website had massive business potential, and on March 1, 1995, Yahoo! was [[Incorporation (business)|incorporated]].<ref>{{citeweb|title=Inventing Yahoo!|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/events/articles/web/20060412-yahoo-internet-search-engine-jerry-yang-david-filo-america-online-google-ipo-email.shtml|publisher=''[[American Heritage (magazine)]]''|accessdate=2008-02-22}}</ref> On April 5, 1995, [[Michael Moritz]] of [[Sequoia Capital]] provided Yahoo! with two rounds of venture capital, raising approximately $3 million.<ref>{{citeweb|author=[[Eric Schmidt]]|url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/article/0,28804,1595326_1615737_1616199,00.html|title=The Time 100 - Michael Moritz|publisher=''[[Time (magazine)]]''|accessdate=2008-11-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/timeline.cfm|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080213120416/http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/timeline.cfm|archivedate=2008-02-13|title=Yahoo Company Timeline|accessdate=2008-08-18}}</ref> On April 12, 1996, Yahoo! had its [[initial public offering]], raising $33.8 million dollars, by selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.


Like many [[Web search engine|search engine]]s and [[web directory|web directories]], Yahoo! diversified into a [[Web portal]]. In the late 1990s, Yahoo!, [[MSN]], [[Lycos]], [[Excite]] and other Web portals were growing rapidly. Web portal providers rushed to acquire companies to expand their range of services, in the hope of increasing the time a user stays at the portal.
Like many [[Web search engine|search engine]]s and [[web directory|web directories]], Yahoo! diversified into a [[Web portal]]. In the late 1990s, Yahoo!, [[MSN]], [[Lycos]], [[Excite]] and other Web portals were growing rapidly.ass portal providers rushed to acquire companies to expand their range of services, in the hope of increasing the time a user stays at the portal.


On March 8, 1997, Yahoo! acquired online communications company Four11. Four11's webmail service, [[Rocketmail]], became [[Yahoo! Mail]]. Yahoo! also acquired ClassicGames.com and turned it into [[Yahoo! Games]]. Yahoo! then acquired direct marketing company Yoyodyne Entertainment, Inc. on October 12. On March 8, 1998, Yahoo! launched Yahoo! Pager,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=173501|title=Stay In Touch With Yahoo! Pager|publisher=''Yahoo''|accessdate=2008-12-08}}</ref> an instant messaging service that was renamed [[Yahoo! Messenger]] a year later. On January 28, 1999, Yahoo! acquired web hosting provider [[GeoCities]]. Another company Yahoo! acquired was [[eGroups]], which became [[Yahoo! Groups]] after the acquisition on June 28, 2000.
On March 8, 1997, Yahoo! acquired online communications company Four11. Four11's webmail service, [[Rocketmail]], became [[Yahoo! Mail]]. Yahoo! also acquired ClassicGames.com and turned it into [[Yahoo! Games]]. Yahoo! then acquired direct marketing company Yoyodyne Entertainment, Inc. on October 12. On March 8, 1998, Yahoo! launched Yahoo! Pager,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=173501|title=Stay In Touch With Yahoo! Pager|publisher=''Yahoo''|accessdate=2008-12-08}}</ref> an instant messaging service that was renamed [[Yahoo! Messenger]] a year later. On January 28, 1999, Yahoo! acquired web hosting provider [[GeoCities]]. Another company Yahoo! acquired was [[eGroups]], which became [[Yahoo! Groups]] after the acquisition on June 28, 2000.
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On May 3, 2008, Microsoft withdrew their offer. During a meeting between Ballmer and Yang, Microsoft had offered to raise its offer by $5 billion to $33 per share, while Yahoo! demanded $37. One of Ballmer’s lieutenants suggested that Yang would implement a [[Poison pill#Public companies|poison pill]] to make the takeover as difficult as possible, saying "They are going to burn the furniture if we go hostile. They are going to destroy the place."<ref name="msft_withdrawl1">{{citeweb|title=Microsoft Withdraws Proposal to Acquire Yahoo!|url=http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/may08/05-03letter.mspx|publisher=''[[Microsoft]]''|accessdate=2008-05-03}}</ref><ref>{{citeweb|title=Microsoft’s Failed Yahoo Bid Risks Online Growth|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/technology/05soft.html?_r=4&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin|publisher=''[[New York Times]]''|accessdate=2008-05-06}}</ref>
On May 3, 2008, Microsoft withdrew their offer. During a meeting between Ballmer and Yang, Microsoft had offered to raise its offer by $5 billion to $33 per share, while Yahoo! demanded $37. One of Ballmer’s lieutenants suggested that Yang would implement a [[Poison pill#Public companies|poison pill]] to make the takeover as difficult as possible, saying "They are going to burn the furniture if we go hostile. They are going to destroy the place."<ref name="msft_withdrawl1">{{citeweb|title=Microsoft Withdraws Proposal to Acquire Yahoo!|url=http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/may08/05-03letter.mspx|publisher=''[[Microsoft]]''|accessdate=2008-05-03}}</ref><ref>{{citeweb|title=Microsoft’s Failed Yahoo Bid Risks Online Growth|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/technology/05soft.html?_r=4&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin|publisher=''[[New York Times]]''|accessdate=2008-05-06}}</ref>


Analysts say that Yahoo!’s shares, which closed at $28.67 on May 2, are likely to drop below $25 and perhaps as low as $20 on May 5, which would put significant pressure on Yang to engineer a turnaround of the company. Some suggest that institutional investors would file lawsuits against Yahoo!’s board of directors for not acting in shareholder interest by refusing Microsoft's offer.<ref>{{citeweb|title=A Yahoo Shareholder on What Might Have Been|url=http://www10.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/technology/05miller-WEB.html?_r=5&ref=technology&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin|publisher=''[[New York Times]]''|accessdate=2008-05-31}}</ref><ref>{{citeweb|title=Pressure's now on Yahoo CEO|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/04/MN0B10GOK9.DTL|publisher=''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]''|accessdate=2008-05-31}}</ref>
Analysts poop that Yahoo!’s shares, which closed at $28.67 on May 2, are likely to drop below $25 and perhaps as low as $20 on May 5, which would put significant pressure on Yang to engineer a turnaround of the company. Some suggest that institutional investors would file lawsuits against Yahoo!’s board of directors for not acting in shareholder interest by refusing Microsoft's offer.<ref>{{citeweb|title=A Yahoo Shareholder on What Might Have Been|url=http://www10.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/technology/05miller-WEB.html?_r=5&ref=technology&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin|publisher=''[[New York Times]]''|accessdate=2008-05-31}}</ref><ref>{{citeweb|title=Pressure's now on Yahoo CEO|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/04/MN0B10GOK9.DTL|publisher=''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]''|accessdate=2008-05-31}}</ref>


On May 5, 2008, Microsoft's withdrawal sent Yahoo!’s stock spiraling 13% lower to $23.02 in Monday trading and trimmed about $6 billion off of its market capitalization.<ref>{{citeweb|title=Yahoo Falls After Microsoft Yanks Takeover Bid|url=http://www.smartmoney.com/one-day-wonder/index.cfm?story=20080505-yahoo&afl=yahoo|publisher=''[[SmartMoney]]''|accessdate=2008-05-06}}</ref>
On May 5, 2008, Microsoft's withdrawal sent Yahoo!’s stock spiraling 13% lower to $23.02 in Monday trading and trimmed about $6 billion off of its market capitalization.<ref>{{citeweb|title=Yahoo Falls After Microsoft Yanks Takeover Bid|url=http://www.smartmoney.com/one-day-wonder/index.cfm?story=20080505-yahoo&afl=yahoo|publisher=''[[SmartMoney]]''|accessdate=2008-05-06}}</ref>
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On June 12, 2008, Yahoo announced that it had ended all talks with Microsoft about purchasing either part of the business (the search advertising business) or all of the company. Talks had taken place the previous weekend (June 8), during which Microsoft allegedly told Yahoo that it was no longer interested in a purchase of the entire company at the price offered earlier -- $33/share. Also on June 12, Yahoo announced a non-exclusive search advertising alliance with Google.<ref>{{cite web|title=Yahoo Ends Talks With Microsoft<nowiki>,</nowiki> Signs Search-Ad Deal with Google|url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121329534659368693.html|publisher=''[[Wall Street Journal]]''|accessdate=2008-06-12}}</ref> Upon this announcement, many executives and senior employees have announced their plans to leave the company as it appears that they have lost confidence in Yahoo's strategies. According to market analysts, these pending departures are also impacting [[Wall Street]]'s perception of the company. <ref>{{cite web | url=http://www10.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/technology/20yahoo.html?_r=5&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin | title="At Yahoo, the Exodus Continues: | author=Helft, Miguel | publisher=NY Times | date=2008-06-20 | accessdate=2008-06-20}}</ref>
On June 12, 2008, Yahoo announced that it had ended all talks with Microsoft about purchasing either part of the business (the search advertising business) or all of the company. Talks had taken place the previous weekend (June 8), during which Microsoft allegedly told Yahoo that it was no longer interested in a purchase of the entire company at the price offered earlier -- $33/share. Also on June 12, Yahoo announced a non-exclusive search advertising alliance with Google.<ref>{{cite web|title=Yahoo Ends Talks With Microsoft<nowiki>,</nowiki> Signs Search-Ad Deal with Google|url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121329534659368693.html|publisher=''[[Wall Street Journal]]''|accessdate=2008-06-12}}</ref> Upon this announcement, many executives and senior employees have announced their plans to leave the company as it appears that they have lost confidence in Yahoo's strategies. According to market analysts, these pending departures are also impacting [[Wall Street]]'s perception of the company. <ref>{{cite web | url=http://www10.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/technology/20yahoo.html?_r=5&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin | title="At Yahoo, the Exodus Continues: | author=Helft, Miguel | publisher=NY Times | date=2008-06-20 | accessdate=2008-06-20}}</ref>


On July 7, 2008, Microsoft said it would reconsider proposing another bid for Yahoo if the company's nine directors were ousted at the annual meeting scheduled to be held on August 1, 2008. Microsoft believes it would be able to better negotiate with a new board. <ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.orlandosentinel.com/topic/ | title="Microsoft wants to negotiate with new Yahoo board" | author=Liedtke, Michael | publisher=Associated Press | date=2008-07-07 | accessdate=2008-07-07}}</ref>
On July 7, 2008, mac said it would reconsider proposing another bid for Yahoo if the company's nine directors were ousted at the annual meeting scheduled to be held on August 1, 2008. Microsoft believes it would be able to better negotiate with a new board. <ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.orlandosentinel.com/topic/ | title="Microsoft wants to negotiate with new Yahoo board" | author=Liedtke, Michael | publisher=Associated Press | date=2008-07-07 | accessdate=2008-07-07}}</ref>


Billionaire investor [[Carl Icahn]], calling the current board irrational in its approach to talks with Microsoft, launched a proxy fight to replace Yahoo's board. On July 21, 2008 Yahoo settled with Carl Icahn, agreeing to appoint him and two allies to an expanded board.
Billionaire investor [[Carl Icahn]], calling the current board irrational in its approach to talks with Microsoft, launched a proxy fight to replace Yahoo's board. On July 21, 2008 Yahoo settled with Carl Icahn, agreeing to appoint him and two allies to an expanded board.

Revision as of 02:15, 15 November 2008

"Yahoo" redirects here. For other uses, see Yahoo (disambiguation).
Yahoo! Inc.
Company typePublic (Nasdaq: YHOO)
IndustryInternet, computer software
FoundedSanta Clara, California
(March 1, 1995)
Headquarters
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, California
,
USA
Products(See list of Yahoo! products)
RevenueIncrease$7.22 billion USD (2008)[1]
Increase$1.03 billion USD (2008)[2]
Number of employees
14,300 (2008)[3]
Websitewww.yahoo.com

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) is a Worldwide American public corporation with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, (in Silicon Valley), and provides Internet services worldwide. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine, Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, news, and social media websites and services. Yahoo! was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was incorporated on March 1, 1995.

According to Web traffic analysis companies (including Compete.com, comScore,[4] Alexa Internet,[5] Netcraft,[6] and Nielsen Ratings[7]), the domain yahoo.com attracted at least 1.575 billion visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.[8] The global network of Yahoo! websites receives 3.4 billion page views per day on average as of October 2007. It is the second most visited website in the U.S., and the most visited website in the world.[5]

History and growth

Early history (1994–1996)

Yahoo! co-founders Jerry Yang (left) and David Filo (right)

In January 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo were Electrical Engineering graduate students at Stanford University In April 1994, "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" was renamed "Yahoo!", for which the official expansion is "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle". Filo and Yang said they selected the name because they liked the word's general definition, which comes from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth." Its URL was akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo.[9]

By the end of 1994, Yahoo! had already received one million hits. The Yahoo! domain was created on January 18, 1995.[10] Yang and Filo realized their website had massive business potential, and on March 1, 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated.[11] On April 5, 1995, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital provided Yahoo! with two rounds of venture capital, raising approximately $3 million.[12][13] On April 12, 1996, Yahoo! had its initial public offering, raising $33.8 million dollars, by selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.

Like many search engines and web directories, Yahoo! diversified into a Web portal. In the late 1990s, Yahoo!, MSN, Lycos, Excite and other Web portals were growing rapidly.ass portal providers rushed to acquire companies to expand their range of services, in the hope of increasing the time a user stays at the portal.

On March 8, 1997, Yahoo! acquired online communications company Four11. Four11's webmail service, Rocketmail, became Yahoo! Mail. Yahoo! also acquired ClassicGames.com and turned it into Yahoo! Games. Yahoo! then acquired direct marketing company Yoyodyne Entertainment, Inc. on October 12. On March 8, 1998, Yahoo! launched Yahoo! Pager,[14] an instant messaging service that was renamed Yahoo! Messenger a year later. On January 28, 1999, Yahoo! acquired web hosting provider GeoCities. Another company Yahoo! acquired was eGroups, which became Yahoo! Groups after the acquisition on June 28, 2000.

When acquiring companies, Yahoo! often changed the relevant terms of service. For example, they claimed intellectual property rights for content on their servers, unlike the companies they acquired. As a result, many of the acquisitions were controversial and unpopular with users of the existing services.[clarification needed]

Yahoo! headquarters in Sunnyvale

Dot-com bubble (2000–2001)

Yahoo! stock doubled in price in the last month of 1999.[15] On January 3, 2000, at the height of the Dot-com boom, Yahoo! stocks closed at an all-time high of $118.75 a share. Sixteen days later, shares in Yahoo! Japan became the first stocks in Japanese history to trade at over ¥100,000,000, reaching a price of ¥101.4 million ($962,140 at that time).[16]

On February 7, 2000, the Yahoo! domain was brought to a halt for a few hours as it was the victim of a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS).[17][18] On the next day, its shares rose about $16, or 4.5 percent as the failure was blamed on hackers rather than on an internal glitch, unlike a fault with eBay earlier that year.

During the dot-com boom, the cable news station CNBC also reported that Yahoo! and eBay were discussing a 50/50 merger.[19] Although the merger never materialized the two companies decided to form a marketing/advertising alliance six years later in 2006.[20]

On June 26, 2000, Yahoo! and Google signed an agreement which retained Google as the default world-wide-web search engine for Yahoo! following a beta trial in 1999.[21]

Post dot-com bubble (2002–2008)

Yahoo! was one of the few surviving large Internet companies after the dot-com bubble burst. Nevertheless, on September 26, 2001, Yahoo! stocks closed at a five-year low of $4.06 (split-adjusted).

Yahoo! formed partnerships with telecommunications and Internet providers to create content-rich broadband services to compete with AOL. On June 3, 2002, SBC and Yahoo! launched a national co-branded dial service.[22] In July 2003, BT Openworld announced an alliance with Yahoo!.[23] On August 23, 2005, Yahoo! and Verizon launched an integrated DSL service.[24]

In late 2002, Yahoo! began to bolster its search services by acquiring other search engines. In December 2002, Yahoo! acquired Inktomi. In February 2005, Yahoo! acquired Konfabulator and rebranded it Yahoo! Widgets,[25] a desktop application and in July 2003, it acquired Overture Services, Inc. and its subsidiaries AltaVista and AlltheWeb. On February 18, 2004, Yahoo! dropped Google-powered results and returned to using its own technology to provide search results.

In 2004, in response to Google's release of Gmail, Yahoo! upgraded the storage of all free Yahoo! Mail accounts from 4 MB to 1 GB, and all Yahoo! Mail Plus accounts to 2 GB. On July 9, 2004, Yahoo! acquired e-mail provider Oddpost to add an Ajax interface to Yahoo! Mail.[26] On October 13, 2005, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced that Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger would become interoperable. In 2007, Yahoo! took out the storage meters, thus allowing users unlimited storage.

Yahoo! continued acquiring companies to expand its range of services, particularly Web 2.0 services. Yahoo! Launchcast became Yahoo! Music on February 9, 2005. On March 20, 2005, Yahoo! purchased photo sharing service Flickr.[27] On March 29, 2005, the company launched its blogging and social networking service Yahoo! 360°. In June 2005, Yahoo! acquired blo.gs, a service based on RSS feed aggregation. Yahoo! then bought online social event calendar Upcoming.org on October 4, 2005. Yahoo! acquired social bookmark site del.icio.us on December 9, 2005 and then playlist sharing community webjay on January 9, 2006.

On August 27, 2007, Yahoo! released a new version of Yahoo! Mail that makes it possible for users to send instant messages to the largest combined instant messaging (IM) community including users of Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger, to send free text messages to mobile phones in the U.S., Canada, India and the Philippines.[28]

On January 29, 2008, Yahoo! announced that the company was laying off 1,000 employees as the company had suffered severely in its inability to effectively compete with industry search leader Google. The cuts represent 7 percent of the company's workforce of 14,300. Employees are being invited to apply for an unknown number of new positions that are expected to open as the company expands areas that promise faster growth.[29]

In February, 2008, Yahoo! acquired Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Maven Networks, a supplier of internet video players and video advertising tools, for approx. $160 million.

Failed acquisition attempt by Microsoft

Microsoft and Yahoo! pursued merger discussions in 2005, 2006, and 2007, that were all ultimately unsuccessful. At the time, analysts were skeptical about the wisdom of a business combination.[30][31]

On February 1, 2008, after its friendly takeover offer was rebuffed by Yahoo!, Microsoft made an unsolicited takeover bid to buy Yahoo! for US$44.6 billion dollars in cash and stock.[32][33] Days later, Yahoo! considered alternatives to the merger with Microsoft, including a merger with internet giant Google[34] or a potential transaction with News Corp.[35] However, on February 11, 2008, Yahoo! decided to reject Microsoft's offer as "substantially undervaluing" Yahoo!'s brand, audience, investments, and growth prospects.[36] As of February 22, two Detroit based pension companies have sued Yahoo! and their board of directors for breaching their duty to shareholders by opposing Microsoft's takeover bid and pursuing "value destructive" third-party deals.[37][dead link] In early March, Google CEO Eric Schmidt went on record saying that he was concerned that a potential Microsoft-Yahoo! merger might hurt the Internet by compromising its openness.[38] The value of Microsoft's cash and stock offer declined with Microsoft's stock price, falling to $42.2 billion by April 4.[39] On April 5, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent a letter to Yahoo!’s board of directors stating that if within three weeks they had not accepted the deal, Microsoft would approach shareholders directly in hopes of a electing a new board and moving forward with merger talks.[40][dead link] In response, Yahoo! stated on April 7 that they were not against a merger, but that they wanted a better offer. In addition, they stated that Microsoft's "aggressive" approach was worsening their relationship and the chances of a "friendly" merger.[41] Later the same day, Yahoo! stated that the original $45 billion offer was not acceptable.[41] Following this, there has been considerable discussion of having Time Warner's AOL and Yahoo! merge, instead of the originally proposed Microsoft deal.[42]

On May 3, 2008, Microsoft withdrew their offer. During a meeting between Ballmer and Yang, Microsoft had offered to raise its offer by $5 billion to $33 per share, while Yahoo! demanded $37. One of Ballmer’s lieutenants suggested that Yang would implement a poison pill to make the takeover as difficult as possible, saying "They are going to burn the furniture if we go hostile. They are going to destroy the place."[43][44]

Analysts poop that Yahoo!’s shares, which closed at $28.67 on May 2, are likely to drop below $25 and perhaps as low as $20 on May 5, which would put significant pressure on Yang to engineer a turnaround of the company. Some suggest that institutional investors would file lawsuits against Yahoo!’s board of directors for not acting in shareholder interest by refusing Microsoft's offer.[45][46]

On May 5, 2008, Microsoft's withdrawal sent Yahoo!’s stock spiraling 13% lower to $23.02 in Monday trading and trimmed about $6 billion off of its market capitalization.[47]

After Microsoft's failed bid to acquire Yahoo!, Microsoft is rumored to be looking at acquiring LiveDoor, a leading Japanese portal and the leading blogging service in Japan, to strengthen its position against Yahoo! Japan.

On June 12, 2008, Yahoo announced that it had ended all talks with Microsoft about purchasing either part of the business (the search advertising business) or all of the company. Talks had taken place the previous weekend (June 8), during which Microsoft allegedly told Yahoo that it was no longer interested in a purchase of the entire company at the price offered earlier -- $33/share. Also on June 12, Yahoo announced a non-exclusive search advertising alliance with Google.[48] Upon this announcement, many executives and senior employees have announced their plans to leave the company as it appears that they have lost confidence in Yahoo's strategies. According to market analysts, these pending departures are also impacting Wall Street's perception of the company. [49]

On July 7, 2008, mac said it would reconsider proposing another bid for Yahoo if the company's nine directors were ousted at the annual meeting scheduled to be held on August 1, 2008. Microsoft believes it would be able to better negotiate with a new board. [50]

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, calling the current board irrational in its approach to talks with Microsoft, launched a proxy fight to replace Yahoo's board. On July 21, 2008 Yahoo settled with Carl Icahn, agreeing to appoint him and two allies to an expanded board.

Products and services

Main article: List of Yahoo-owned sites and services

Yahoo! provides a wide array of internet services that cater to most online activities. It operates the web portal http://www.yahoo.com which provides contents including the latest news, Yahoo! Finance gives users quick access to other Yahoo! services like Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Maps, Yahoo! Groups and Yahoo! Messenger. The majority of the product offerings are available globally in more than 20 languages.

Diversified services

Yahoo! offers diversified services; it provides vertical search services such as Yahoo! Image, Yahoo! Video, Yahoo! Local, Yahoo! News, and Yahoo! Shopping Search. As of August 2007, Yahoo! is the second-most used search engine, after Google. As of December 11, 2007, Google and the Microsoft search engine "store personal information for 18 months" and Yahoo! and AOL (Time Warner) "retain search requests for 13 months".[51]

Communication

Yahoo! provides internet communication services such as Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Mail is the largest e-mail service in the world with almost half the market share.[52] In March, 2007, Yahoo! announced that their email service will offer unlimited storage beginning May 2007.[53]

Yahoo! Mail premium service MailPlus provides additional functionality including POP/SMTP access to Yahoo! mail accounts, although such functionality is already provided for free by Yahoo! competitor Gmail. Some MailPlus subscribers have reported difficulties in successfully cancelling their Mailplus (automatically renewed and paid by credit card) subscriptions. Although other areas of the Mailplus web interface appear to function correctly, a blank page appears when users select "cancel service" from the list of options to manage the service. It is unknown whether this error has been an accidental oversight by Yahoo! programmers, or a deliberate attempt to retain Mailplus subscription cash flows as long as possible.

Yahoo! also offers social networking services and user-generated content in products such as My Web, Yahoo! Personals, Yahoo! 360°, Flickr and Yahoo! Buzz.

Yahoo! Photos was shut down on September 20, 2007 in favor of Flickr. On October 16, 2007, Yahoo! announced that they will no longer provide support or perform bug fixes on Yahoo! 360° as they intend to abandon it in early 2008 in favor of a "universal profile" that will be similar to their Mash experimental system.[54]

Content

Yahoo! partners with hundreds of premier content providers in products such as Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Music, Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Answers and Yahoo! Games to provide media contents and news. Yahoo! also provides a personalization service, My Yahoo!, which enables users to collect their favorite Yahoo! features, content feeds, and information into a single page.

Yahoo! has developed partnerships with different broadband providers such as AT&T (via BellSouth & SBC), Verizon Communications, Rogers Communications, Axtel and British Telecom, offering a range of free and premium Yahoo! content and services to subscribers.

On March 31, 2008 Yahoo! launched web portal http://shine.yahoo.com/ another Yahoo! property dedicated to women between the ages of 25 and 54. Yahoo! called this demographic underserved by current Yahoo! properties. With Shine Yahoo! will expand its offerings in parenting, sex and love, healthy living, food, career, money, entertainment, fashion, beauty home life and astrology.

Mobile

Yahoo! Mobile includes services for on-the-go messaging, such as email, instant messaging, and moblogging; information, such as search and alerts; and fun and games, including ringtones, mobile games, and Yahoo! Photos for camera phones. These require software to be installed on the user's device.

oneSearch

Yahoo! introduced its Internet search system, called oneSearch, developed for mobile phones on March 20, 2007. The company's officials stated that in distinction from ordinary Web searches, Yahoo!’s new service presents a list of actual information, which may include: news headlines, images from Yahoo!’s Flickr photos site, business listings, local weather and links to other sites. Instead of showing only, for example, popular movies or some critical reviews, oneSearch lists local theaters that at the moment are playing a certain movie, user ratings and news headlines regarding the movie. A zip code or city name is required for Yahoo! oneSearch to start delivering local search results.

The results of a Web search are listed on a single page and are prioritized into categories. The list of results is based on calculations that Yahoo! computers make on certain information the user is seeking.[55]

Yahoo! has announced they also plan to adopt Novarra's mobile content transcoding service for the oneSearch platform.[56]

Commerce

Yahoo! offers commerce services such as Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Autos, Yahoo! Real Estate and Yahoo! Travel, which enables users to gather relevant information and make commercial transactions and purchases online. Yahoo! Auctions were discontinued in 2007 except for Asia. [57]

Small business

Yahoo! provides services such as Yahoo! Domains, Yahoo! Web Hosting, Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, Yahoo! Business Email, and Yahoo! Store to small business owners and professionals allowing them to build their own online stores using Yahoo!’s tools.

Yahoo! also offers HotJobs to help recruiters find the talent they seek.

Advertising

Yahoo! Search Marketing provides services such as Sponsored Search, Local Advertising, and Product/Travel/Directory Submit that let different businesses advertise their products and services on the Yahoo! network. Yahoo! Publisher Network is an advertising tool for online publishers to place advertisements relevant to their content to monetize their websites.[58]

Yahoo! launched its new Internet advertisement sales system on February 5, 2007 called Panama. It allows advertisers to bid for search terms based on their popularity to display their ads on search results pages. The system takes bids, ad quality, click-through rates and other factors into consideration in determining how ads are ranked on search results pages. Through Panama, Yahoo! aims to provide more relevant search results to users, a better overall experience, as well as increase monetization -- to earn more from the ads it shows.[59]

On April 7, 2008, Yahoo! announced Yahoo! AMP!, an online advertising management platform.[60] The platform seeks to simplify advertising sales by unifying buyer and seller markets. The service is scheduled for release in quarter 3 of 2008.

Yahoo! Next

Yahoo! Next is an incubation ground for future Yahoo! technologies currently in their beta testing phase. It contains forums for Yahoo! users to give feedback to assist in the development of these future Yahoo! technologies.

Yahoo! BOSS

Yahoo! Search BOSS is a new service that allows developers to build search applications based on Yahoo!'s search technology.[61] Early Partners in the program include Hakia, Me.dium, Daylife, and Cluuz.[62]

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of Yahoo!

Yahoo! has been criticized for aspects of its business and practices, including paid inclusion, accusations of support of adware and spyware, and its cooperation with the Chinese government in enforcing internet censorship in mainland China.

Revenue model

About 88% of total revenues for the fiscal year 2006 came from marketing services. The largest segment of it comes from search advertising, where advertisers bid for search terms to display their ads on the search results, on average Yahoo! makes 2.5 cents to 3 cents from each search. With the new search advertising system "Panama" Yahoo! aims to increase revenue generated from search.[63]

Other forms of advertising which bring in revenue for Yahoo! include display and contextual advertising.

Working with comScore the The New York Times found that Yahoo! is able to collect far more data about Web users than its competitors from its Web sites and its advertising network. By one measure, on average Yahoo! had the potential in December 2007 to build a profile of 2,500 records per month about each of its visitors.[64]

Financial data

Financial data, US$ million[65]
Year 2003 2004 2005 2006
Sales 1 625 3 574 5 258 6 426
EBITDA 453 1 000 1 505 1 066
Net Results 238 840 1 896 751
Staff 5 500 7 600 9 800 11 400

Yahoo! International

Yahoo! is known across the world with its multi-lingual interface. The site is available in over 20 languages, including English. The official directory for all of the Yahoo! International sites is world.yahoo.com.

Each of the international sites are wholly-owned by Yahoo!, with the exception of Yahoo! Japan1, in which it holds a 33% minority stake. Historically, Yahoo! entered into joint venture agreements with Softbank for the major European sites2 (UK, France, Germany) and well as Korea and Japan. In November 2005, Yahoo! purchased the minority interests that Softbank owned in Europe and Korea.

Yahoo! logos come in many different colors and shapes.[66] The first logo was used when the company was founded in 1995, it was red and it had three icons on each side of it. Even though the official logo is purple,[67] the logo used on the main page yahoo.com is red with a black outline and shadow. Sometimes the logo is abbreviated with Y!.[66]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ "Yahoo! Inc: Company Report". MSN. Retrieved 2008-02-17. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ "Key Statistics". Yahoo. Retrieved 2008-02-17. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ "Yahoo! Inc. - Frequently Asked Questions". Yahoo. Retrieved 2008-10-22. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ "Fox Interactive Media Ranks #1 in Page Views; Yahoo! Sites Attract the Most Unique Visitors". comScore. Retrieved 2008-02-12. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ a b "Traffic History Graph for yahoo.com". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2008-02-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ "Current Web Traffic stats for Yahoo". Netcraft. Retrieved 2008-08-16. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ "Successful Sites Drive High Visitor Retention Rates" (PDF). Nielsen Ratings. Retrieved 2008-02-12. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ "Snapshot of yahoo.com". Compete.com. Retrieved 2008-11-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ "The History of Yahoo! - How It All Started..." Yahoo. Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ "WHOIS information for: yahoo.com:". whois.net. Retrieved 2008-11-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ "Inventing Yahoo!". American Heritage (magazine). Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ Eric Schmidt. "The Time 100 - Michael Moritz". Time (magazine). Retrieved 2008-11-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ "Yahoo Company Timeline". Archived from the original on 2008-02-13. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
  14. ^ "Stay In Touch With Yahoo! Pager". Yahoo. Retrieved 2008-12-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ "YHOO: Historical Prices for YAHOO INC - Yahoo! Finance". Retrieved 2008-11-02.
  16. ^ "Yahoo Japan Stock Breaks 100 Million Yen Barrier". internetnews.com. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
  17. ^ "Hacker plan: take down the Net". dennismoran.org. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
  18. ^ "How a basic attack crippled Yahoo". news.com. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  19. ^ "Yahoo to Buy EBay?". wired.com. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  20. ^ "Yahoo, eBay form Web advertising alliance". msnbc.com. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  21. ^ "GoogleAlert #2: Yahoo! Selects Google as its Default Search Engine Provider". google.com. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  22. ^ "Internet Leaders SBC and Yahoo! Launch National Co-Branded Dial Service". att.com. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  23. ^ "Internet alliance BT and Yahoo!". telecom.paper.nl. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  24. ^ "Verizon and Yahoo! Launch Integrated DSL Service Combining Broadband Speed with Premium Content". newscenter.verizon.com. Retrieved 2008-02-06.
  25. ^ "Konfabulator 2.1: Ajax additions". ajaxian.com. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  26. ^ "Yahoo acquires Oddpost to bolster e-mail". news.com. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  27. ^ "Yahoo actually does acquire Flickr". flickr.com. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  28. ^ "SiliconRepublic:_Yahoo_releases_new_email_service". siliconrepublic.com. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  29. ^ "Yahoo to lay off 1,000". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-07-24. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  30. ^ Mary Crane (May 3, 2006). "Microsoft, Yahoo In Possible Partnership Talks". Forbes. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  31. ^ "Microsoft and Yahoo end on-again off-again talks to combine forces". Associated Press. May 4, 2007. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  32. ^ "Microsoft wants to purchase Yahoo". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  33. ^ "Microsoft Offers to Buy Yahoo for $44.6 Billion". Bloomberg. February 1, 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  34. ^ Jason, Mick (2008-02-06). "Microsoft May Borrow For Yahoo Deal; Yahoo Opts for Google Alliance". DailyTech. Retrieved 2008-02-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  35. ^ Kafka, Peter (2008-02-12). "Yahoo-News Corp Still Talking, Deal Still Possible". AlleyInsider. Retrieved 2008-03-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  36. ^ "Yahoo! Board of Directors Says Microsoft's Proposal Substantially Undervalues Yahoo!". Business Wire. February 1, 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  37. ^ "Yahoo sued for spurning Microsoft". yahoo.com. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  38. ^ "Microsoft's moves 'threaten net'". Retrieved 2008-03-18.
  39. ^ "Microsoft CEO sets deadline to Yahoo for deal". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-04-10. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  40. ^ "Microsoft sets deadline for Yahoo bid". MSNBC. Retrieved 2008-04-10. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  41. ^ a b "Microsoft-Yahoo fight reaches the turning point". MSNBC. Retrieved 2008-04-10. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  42. ^ "Yahoo brings two titans to the table". theaustralian.news.com.au. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  43. ^ "Microsoft Withdraws Proposal to Acquire Yahoo!". Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-05-03. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  44. ^ "Microsoft's Failed Yahoo Bid Risks Online Growth". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  45. ^ "A Yahoo Shareholder on What Might Have Been". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-31. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  46. ^ "Pressure's now on Yahoo CEO". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-05-31. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  47. ^ "Yahoo Falls After Microsoft Yanks Takeover Bid". SmartMoney. Retrieved 2008-05-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  48. ^ "Yahoo Ends Talks With Microsoft, Signs Search-Ad Deal with Google". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2008-06-12. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  49. ^ Helft, Miguel (2008-06-20). ""At Yahoo, the Exodus Continues:". NY Times. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  50. ^ Liedtke, Michael (2008-07-07). ""Microsoft wants to negotiate with new Yahoo board"". Associated Press. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  51. ^ Liedtke, Michael (December 11, 2007). "Ask.com will purge search info in hours". Journal Gazette. Fort Wayne Newspapers. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
  52. ^ "Yahoo_Tops_Google_In_Mail,_News,_Finance". webpronews.com. Retrieved 2008-02-17.
  53. ^ "Yahoo! Mail goes to infinity and beyond". yodel.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  54. ^ "The Evolution of Yahoo! 360". blog.360.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
  55. ^ "Yahoo Gets Ahead of Google in the Mobile Search Market". 2008-02-21.
  56. ^ "Novarra to transcode for Yahoo's oneSearch". rcrnews.com. Retrieved 2008-02-06.
  57. ^ "Yahoo to close North American auction site". msnbc.com. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  58. ^ "Company Overview". shareholder.com. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  59. ^ "New Panama Ranking System For Yahoo Ads Launches Today". searchengineland.com. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  60. ^ "Yahoo! Previews Powerful New Online Advertising Management Platform". Yahoo. Retrieved 2008-05-31. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  61. ^ Yahoo Boss Is So Open, It Runs on Google's App Engine - washingtonpost.com
  62. ^ Yahoo! Expands Its Open Strategy With BOSS
  63. ^ "A Long-Delayed Ad System Has Yahoo Crossing Its Fingers". nytimes.com. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  64. ^ Story, Louise and comScore (March 10, 2008). "They Know More Than You Think" (JPEG). in Story, Louise (March 10, 2008). "To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
  65. ^ "Data source". OpesC. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
  66. ^ a b Yahoo Press Room
  67. ^ "Yahoo Logo Design", Logo Design History

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