The Yahoo! story spins out of control! (alt! delete!)

It's IT Blogwatch: in which Carl Icahn tag-teams with Steve Ballmer in the fight for control of Yahoo! Not to mention the Web site is down...

Chris Kanaracus and Elizabeth Montalbano also tag-team:

In a statement Monday, Microsoft Corp. confirmed that it would be interested in resuming talks with Yahoo Inc. with a new board of directors, either as part of an effort to buy Yahoo's search business or the entire company. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who has been pushing for a deal with Microsoft and has proposed a new slate of Yahoo directors, also issued a letter on Monday, confirming that he has discussed the scenario "frequently" during the past week with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and other executives. In response to Icahn's letter, Yahoo's board of directors on Monday said the company is ready to sell and urged Microsoft to make an offer for all of Yahoo now if it is still interested in buying. more

Gordon Gecko is good:

Corporate Raider Carl Icahn and convicted monopolist Microsoft have asked Yahoo shareholders to vote out Yahoo's board and install Icahn's proposed slate of replacements. Icahn said in a statement released early Monday, "Steve [Ballmer] made it clear to me that if a new board were elected, he would be interested in discussing a major transaction with Yahoo!, such as either a transaction to purchase the 'Search' function with large financial guarantees or, in the alternative, purchasing the whole company" ... In early morning trading, Yahoo shares rose 9.37 per cent to $23.35 on the news. more

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is incandescent:

What part of "Yahoo doesn't want a thing to do with you" did Ballmer not get? ... Just how stupid is Ballmer? The deal is dead ... For over a month now Icahn has been trying to drum up support for a hostile take over of the Yahoo board. It hasn't worked. Now, for reasons beyond me, Ballmer and Icahn are trying to get people excited about a deal strategy that's already failed ... The only thing that Ballmer has managed to do in this whole mess is to force Yahoo into Google's arms. Good going. more

Frederic Lardinois est dans le jardin:

Microsoft apparently stated that it would still be interested in the Yahoo acquisition, but only if the current Yahoo board were ousted ... Icahn notes that he and Ballmer discussed both the sale of the complete company, as well as breaking out Yahoo's search functionality ... Icahn is clearly pushing to get Microsoft back to the negotiation table ... this is apparently still a possibility. Microsoft thinks that a deal with Yahoo is impossible with the current board still in place, because Yahoo's management would be prone to mismanaging the company ... Judging from the letter, Icahn is still completely transfixed on Microsoft as the only possible partner for Yahoo. more

Kara Swisher sashays in:

Microsoft’s not the only one possibly backing billionaire investor Carl Icahn in his quest to unseat Yahoo’s leadership and board–major Yahoo investor Gordon Crawford told Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang in a face-to-face meeting last week that he was seriously considering voting against Yahoo (YHOO) in the looming proxy fight ... a portent of what is to come at the company’s annual meeting on August 1. And those signs are definitely not good for Yahoo’s current leaders ... Abandonment by Crawford ... means the unlikely chance that Icahn could topple Yahoo’s board and make good on his promise to throw the Yahoo co-founder out becomes a much more distinct possibility. Of course, that got another boost today with a classic wrestling double-body slam that Icahn and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer perpetrated on Yang. more

But Henry Blodget isn't satisfied, yet:

Alas... if Carl and Steve want us to fire Jerry at the shareholder meeting, they're going to have to provide some more details. Specifically, they're going to have to tell us: who they're bringing in as CEO, what that person is going to do besides trying to sell the company to Microsoft, and/or, what specific terms Microsoft will offer for either a search deal or a buyout ... Jerry's plan for Yahoo is sound. He may not be the best guy to execute it--an experienced operator would help--but we'd rather see Jerry cede the CEO slot to a strong operator than have the company decapitated with no idea of who is going to step in to run it and whether Steve Ballmer will offer anything even remotely attractive. more

Robert Scoble looks outside the echo chamber, for a change:

I don’t feel sorry for Yahoo. I am thinking back to the first days of this story, back in January. I still remember Maryam, turning to me after I told her that Yahoo was turning down Microsoft. She said “are they crazy?” If a normal person can have that reaction, something must have been wrong inside the leadership of Yahoo. Translation: Yahoo is being burnt to the ground by its current management. more

John Timmer wonders if this is really news:

It has also been clear that Microsoft has continued to negotiate with the existing Yahoo management long after declaring the prospect of a deal dead. Microsoft was careful not to join Icahn in speaking ill of Jerry Yang in their statement, leaving open the option of continuing negotiations on the table. By essentially playing both sides of the table—putting pressure on existing management while getting on good terms with their opponent—Microsoft has made clear just how badly they want a deal for Yahoo's search business. more

Mike Masnick cries, "please make it stop":

It's the merger story that never dies ... the longer this goes on, the more of a mess it becomes -- and the happier Google gets. more

[More at Techmeme]

And finally...

• The Web Site is Down (not safe for work)
  
• Alt.link: Hans Reiser has 'fessed up, so I can finally link to this cartoon
  

Buffer overflow:

• Egan Orion: Hans Reiser leads cops to wife's body
• 4sysops: Windows looses significant market share to Mac and Linux
• Sean McGrath: Only the cloud can scale
• Hu Yoshida: IDC report calls for well rounded storage strategies to address increasing power and cooling costs
• Dan Slater: Unhappy With its Google-Search Results, Rosetta Stone Sues Competitor
• Nate Anderson: Google relents, adds privacy link to spartan homepage
• Yahoo’s Next (Real) Challenge: July 22 Q2 Earnings Report | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD
• Ed Bott: Why you’ll have a long wait for Microsoft’s next OS
• Tim O'Reilly: What good is collective intelligence if it doesn't make us smarter?

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• Angela Gunn: Spam, the tasty Tweet; or, how not to make friends
• Eric Ogren: Strong authentication service comes to gaming
• Robert L. Mitchell: Wanted: An iPhonebook
• Mark Hall: Collaborate during Web services development
• Preston Gralla: Why Google has lost its mojo
• Martin MC Brown: Science 2.0 and rights protection
• Shark Tank: Aha!
• Shark Bait: Support _MY_ computer

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 21 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• AVG ceases accidental DDoS: webmasters cheer
• Independence from HDDs? MBA with SSD is $500 off!
• Firefox keeps on growing and growing and growing and...