Although the sixth edition of the D: All Things Digital conference last week was chock full of tech and media hotshots, most attendees seemed to like best the rollicking interview Walt Mossberg and I did with News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch.
Look, we’ve been delivering the goods for weeks now in terms of news, so BoomTown is taking the day off at the beach today (here’s my exact location right now) to get ready for our upcoming sixth D: All Things Digital conference.
That starts Tuesday night when Walt Mossberg and I interview Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer live onstage.
Tonight, The Wall Street Journal and Reuters had nearly identical stories, noting that Microsoft was interested in buying Yahoo’s search business, which–oh, we bloggers are so touchy when we don’t get even a smidgen of credit, aren’t we?–BoomTown speculated was just what the software giant was interested in yesterday.
To be fair, both Reuters’ and The Journal’s reports make such a plan by Microsoft even more definitive and both have interesting new details, which are intriguing.
Earlier this week, BoomTown posted our speaker list for the sixth edition of D: All Things Digital, which will take place in a few weeks–May 27 to 29, to be exact–in Carlsbad, Calif.
Just recently, we added Jerry Yang, CEO and co-founder of Yahoo, and now he is being joined onstage at the conference by Yahoo President Sue Decker (pictured here in a lovely Wall Street Journal dot-drawing).
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft (MSFT). News Corp.’s (NWS) Rupert Murdoch. Jeff Bewkes of Time Warner (TWX). Yahoo’s (YHOO) Jerry Yang.
All of them engaged in roiling Internet deal-making of late and all of them in just three weeks on the same stage–but not, thankfully, at the same time, or we’d need a professional [...]
Who in the Internet sector hasn’t enjoyed the always amusing stylings of Mr. Ross Levinsohn, the high-profile former head of Fox Interactive Media a.k.a. “The Guy Who Bought MySpace for News Corp.”?
Today, he added another song to his silky smooth repertoire as the “Internet guy who dissed Yahoo.”
In a nice scoop, TechCrunch reported that Levinsohn [...]
Yes, the board of Yahoo is meeting today to try to devise new and more dastardly ways of wringing more money out of Microsoft.
For viewers just tuning in, so far this week on “As the Tiny-Incestuous-Petty-Juvenile-Digital World Turns,” Yahoo has been plenty busy:
An AOL mashup deal!
A Google search-ad partnership!
Even–cue the trumpets!!!–the late entrance of that man-about-Silicon-Valley from Web 1.0, Frank Quattrone, working for Google, which is helping Yahoo on AOL (and, fun, snake-eating-itself fact: as a banker, Quattrone worked for Yahoo when it was contemplating buying eBay).
This is so deliciously sweet, in terms of geek soap opera, that I fear I may get a major cavity soon.
Everybody remain calm.
While it might have looked like it was the rapture for major Internet players yesterday–what with everyone and his mother getting sucked up into the Yahoo-Microsoft takeover tussle and disappearing into the ether of confusion that now reigns over the situation–it is best to keep moving toward the light of harsh reality for illumination.
Could we resist? No, we could not.
Thus, BoomTown’s translation of Saturday’s letter from Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer to the Yahoo (YHOO) Board of Directors, which has been resisting the software giant’s efforts to buy the troubled Internet portal for $31 a share in an unsolicited takeover.
The well-written letter was surprising in its clarity, but [...]
So, for the last week or so since Yahoo rejected Microsoft’s unsolicited bid of $31 a share as too low, all has been relatively quiet on the Western front.
Sure, Yahoo continued its tango with News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch (lots of those dramatic cross-country flights to meet in secret, like they were rendezvousing at Hernando’s Hideaway, details of which somehow always get leaked to the press).
In turn, while threatening a proxy fight, Microsoft trotted out its execs–including its iconic Chairman Bill Gates–to restate that its offer was “fair” and leaked its own internal memos, including emails from top brass to company minions.
So, one wonders, what could get this party started?
BoomTown is suffering from Rupert Murdoch déjà vu.
Back in July, I actually wrote a post about the head of News Corp. (owner of Dow Jones and this site) in which the first sentence was: “MySpace and Yahoo should merge.”
I was referencing a very interesting comment that Murdoch made in an interview in June of 2007 with Time’s Eric Pooley.
In it, he floated the idea of trading a 25 percent stake of Yahoo for MySpace.
Steve wrote: January 31, 2008
Board of Directors
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Attention: Roy Bostock, Chairman
Attention: Jerry Yang, Chief Executive Officer
Dear Members of the Board:
Translation: [With Steve channeling Alex Forrest in "Fatal Attraction"]
Well, what am I supposed to do? You won’t answer my calls, you change your number. I mean, I’m not gonna be ignored, Jerry!
The Wall Street Journal gave a big hello to its new owner, Rupert Murdoch, who takes over Dow Jones (owner of this site) today, by publishing this tough piece also today on the disaster of News Corp.’s investment in Gemstar-TV Guide International.
It comes from breakingviews, an online financial commentary Web site that the news organization [...]
Life under media mogul Rupert Murdoch will be full of surprises, at least.
Earlier this week, the News Corp. CEO and chairman said while in Australia that he is leaning toward making The Wall Street Journal’s fee-based Web site free, which appears to be getting some resistance from, well, the execs running the flagship newspaper.
Did I wangle a seat right next to soon-to-be Dow Jones owner Rupert Murdoch last night at the Web 2.0 Summit dinner?
Of course I did, continuing in the shameless BoomTown tradition of trying to get gratis meals with moguls (like our ongoing efforts to raise money for DonorsChoose.org and get a free lunch with Yahoo [...]
Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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