Tariq Ali

Yahoo's president, Susan Decker is pushing a plan to centralize "numerous product groups, such as its mail, search and homepage divisions, into a global product organization amid intense pressure to boost earnings."

The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft have ended the talks with Yahoo and no longer willing to buy Yahoo for $33 per share.  Also, the Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo reached an ad deal with Google that could generate $800 million in annual revenue according to Yahoo.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin wants to go to space and has made a $5 million down payment to book a seat on a private space flight.
Zillow.com CEO launched a new site that includes compensation figures.

AOL launched an updated radio services adding streams from 150 CBS Radio stations, custom channels and 200 AOL Radio channels. 
Google and Microsoft employees help China's earthquake relief effort.
Kaiser Permanente announced today a new program to link patient data to Microsoft consumer health platform

Ichan attacked Yahoo severance plan and accused Chief Executive Jerry Yang of going to "inordinate lengths" to sabotage Microsoft Corp.'s bid for the Internet giant and reiterated that "the only way to salvage Yahoo is to merge with Microsoft.

In another news, Microsoft launched and enhanced version of its "Search AND Give" search engine. Consumers can start donating one cent per search to more than 100,000 schools and 900,000 non-profit organizations

Icahn wants to oust Jerry Yang, the Wall Street Journal reported. "Mr. Icahn, in an interview, accused Mr. Yang and the company's board of being disingenuous about their willingness to consider an acquisition offer and of setting up a costly employee-retention plan that would deter any deal

Microsoft's Live Search is now the default search engine on Hewlett-Packard computers sold in the United States and Canada beginning January 2009. Microsoft is building a custom, Live Search-enabled toolbar for HP customers.  As part of the deal, the default search engine setting in the browser on all HP consumer PCs will also be set to Microsoft Live Search.

Microsoft's Ballmer defended his company's ability to compete in the search market and its pursuit of Google at the All Things Digital conference.

Google plans to expands its travel offerings and give users the ability to research travel plans, read reviews, see user's uploaded videos(YouTube) and photos. 

Yahoo Inc.  and Google Inc. could announce a search-advertising agreement as soon as early next week. Analysts have estimated that a deal with Google could boost Yahoo's cash flow by as much as $1 billion a year.

Microsoft announced a new "Cashback" search service that pays a rebate for buying products found through Live search engine. Users of the program can receive 2 percent to 30 percent if they buy items found using Microsoft's Live search engine. Microsoft will partner with more than 700 retailers and will offer advertisers a cost-per-acquisition model of payment, meaning that they only pay for ads that lead to purchases.

Icahn's efforts to unseat Yahoo's board has picked up new backers, the Wall Street Journal reported. Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens bought 10 millions shares. In addition, Third Point LLC, the activist hedge-fund firm run by Daniel Loeb has bought four million shares in Yahoo since March.

Microsoft said its resuming talks with Yahoo and the possiblity of making a new bid for Yahoo. Microsoft also said in the statement that it "reserves the right to reconsider" the possibility of a bid for the company

Space Data Corp launches 10 balloons a day across the U.S. providing telecom services to truckers and oil companies. The company wants to use that same idea to beam down wireless service to rural areas of the U.S.

Microsoft will authorize a proxy fight according to the New York Times DealBook blog. A vote wouldn't take place until Yahoo's next shareholder meeting, which is typically held in June. 

Baidu net income soared 79% exceeding Wall Street expectations. The company reported net income of $30.1 million.
Revenue per online marketing customer jumped 48%. The number of active online marketing customers climbed 44% to more than 155,000.

Yahoo and News Corp are in talks to combine MySpace and other properties of News Corp with Yahoo. The deal would include cash contribution from News Corp. and other private equity firm. The deal would give News Corp more than 20% stake in Yahoo.

Yahoo began carrying out its job cutbacks today. The announcement came at the end of last month. Up to 1000 employees are expected to be impacted by the job cuts. The layoffs are performance-based rather than part of a plan to shut-down whole operations according to source at Yahoo.

Now you can find your local news on Google News by typing in your city or zip code.  Microsoft has acquired a 3-D modeling software company to add to its portfolio of 3-D mapping tools.

Time Warner announced today that is plans to separate AOL's Internet access business from its Web portal and online advertising businesses and entirely separate its cable unit, The Wall Street Journal reported.