Filed under: Business, web 2.0

Online backup provider Mozy has just introduced its enterprise backup solution, aptly named MozyEnterprise. We’d like to first point out that the name “MozyEnterprise” commits not one, but two egregious web 2.0 transgressions: cute misspellings of common words and removing all spaces from the name.

How’s the service itself, you ask?

MozyEnterprise is offered as a fee-based subscription service. It remains an online backup solution, though Mozy has pumped up the security features: 448-bit Blowfish encryption and 128 bit SSL encryption, with the additional option of private encryption keys.

Other enterprise-themed features include:

• Administrative console: Centrally manage end-user backups from any location through a web-based administrative console.
• “Hot” backup of Exchange, and SQL server
• Snapshot support: Restore from multiple file versions saved up to 30 days in the past.
• Automatic or scheduled backup

If you’re the network administrator of a massive company, why don’t you “mozy” on over (har-har) and check it out?

[via Web Worker Daily]

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Housing professionals like to say that residential real estate is all about location. I’ve heard from many Realtors that you have to look at individual markets when speaking about the country’s housing slump. Just because sales are bad and prices are dropping in much of Florida, it doesn’t mean that things are equally as bad in Chicago.

A recent story by James Hagerty in the Washington Post’s online Real Estate Journal says that’s changing. Even previously strong real estate markets are now suffering from the housing slump. You can read the story here.

According to the story, the housing slump has finally hit the Pacific Northwest and North Carolina, two markets that had largely been immune to the problems in the residential real estate market. The story even mentions that Manhattan might soon seen its own version of the housing slump.

There is some good news in the story, though. The markets in Boston and Denver are still going strong, for instance. And Dallas held steady, too.

But the overall theme of the story is a chilling one for those hoping that an end to the housing slump is near: Housing troubles are still spreading across the country. It looks like 2008 is going to be another tough year for the residential market.

Tags: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Manhattan, North Carolina, Wall Street Journal

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Filed under: Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

I don’t understand what Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is doing. Last week at this time, investors were celebrating a very nice earnings report, and after years of watching the stock go nowhere, investors had some hope for the rest of ‘08. Now comes today’s announcement that the software maker wants to purchase struggling world wide web search firm Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), for a 60% premium to where Yahoo stock was trading.

I know that Microsoft wants to go after Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). I also know that I’ve an egg on my face for a “buy Google into earnings” post that I wrote yesterday. But why pay 60% more than the market price for a company that admittedly has all kinds of problems and no one else wants?

Just when investors had thought they might just make some money with their Microsoft stock, this news comes along and now, I’m afraid it will be many more years until they see their stock move up.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer has no positions in any stock mentioned as of 2/1/08

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Filed under: Deals, Law, Merrill Lynch (MER)

Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER) will buy back nearly $14 million in collateralized debt obligations which it sold to Springfield, MA. Because of the subprime mess, those instruments have lost over 90% of their value. The city stated that Merrill should have disclosed more about the financial product.

In a bit of a PR compromise, Merrill and the city has decided the bank will do the right thing. “The City of Springfield and the Springfield Financial Control Board have said that neither body approved the buys of these investments,” said Mark Herr, a Merrill spokesman according to The Wall Street Journal.

There would seem to be some window dressing on that. Since when is Merrill responsible for the approval of purchases of its own products? Someone in Springfield’s government obviously approved the buy, but say authorities are probing whether Merrill disclosed the dangers of the CDOs.

Merrill is setting a bad precedent. What happens when other cities and says state they were mislead. Does Merrill give all of them a refund?

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Deals, Sprint Nextel Corp (S)

It looks like Sprint’s (NYSE: S) 2005 merger with Nextel Communications will end the way that a disturbing number of mega-deals end: with a huge write-off.

Sprint announced yesterday that it might write off as much as $31 billion related to the deal — a move that could eliminate all the goodwill the company recorded for the merger.

The write-off would be far bigger than the headline-making subprime-related moves that derailed shares of the major banks. But shares of Sprint didn’t budge on the news.

Why? It’s already well-known that the Nextel deal was an unmitigated disaster. The goodwill might still be on the balance sheet but it has no value. It’s an asset that everyone has already written off mentally.

Sprint stated that the charge wouldn’t affect the company’s cash position or effects its deals with lenders.

The deal for Nextel cost Sprint $35 billion, meaning that the company absolutely wasted at least $34 billion of that amount, and everyone can already tell less than 3 years after it went down. That has to make it one of the worst M&A moves in history.

Hey, at least they didn’t buy WorldCom.

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Filed under: Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), Market matters, New York Times’A’ (NYT), IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI), Corning Inc (GLW), EMC Corp (EMC), Cramer on BloggingStocks, Technology

TheStreet.com’s Jim Cramer states Microsoft’s $31-per-share offer will wake up the Web sector.

Oh, physician! Just when you thought there was no reason to own tech whatsoever, when everything was slowing and awful, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) (Cramer’s Take) decides to change the game and become the biggest on the internet player there’s.

This is big. It is a giant liquidity event and a reminder that there is value, that there is a floor in a tech group that has gone from bad to worse this year, from absolutely unownable to ridiculously unownable.

Until now.

This is a massive premium bid. It will wake everyone up, from Interactive (NASDAQ: IACI) (Cramer’s Take) to New York Times (NYSE: NYT) (Cramer’s Take) stock (About.com will now become larger than people think). It will put a premium on what was a discount.

And we needed it.

After the brutal lack of gains from the EMCs (NYSE: EMC) (Cramer’s Take) and the Cornings (NYSE: GLW) (Cramer’s Take) after their great quarters, and from the shellacking of the Googles (NASDAQ: GOOG) (Cramer’s Take) and Apples (NASDAQ: AAPL) (Cramer’s Take) we needed this bad to keep tech in the game.

BooYahoo!!

RELATED LINKS:

• Saving for Your Kid’s College: Begin Here, and Begin Now
• Ten Things to Do With Your Tax Rebate

At the time of publication, Cramer was long EMC and Corning.

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Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Motorola (MOT), Market matters, Economic data

U.S. stock futures were tiny changed earlier this morning, but now they’ve got the boost they needed. If before investors had disappointing results from Google and the upcoming January jobs report to mull over, now they’ve this headline: Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo, a 60% over Yahoo!’s share price close Thursday.

Meanwhile, OPEC oil ministers ignored pleas to pump more oil and agreed to keep production at present levels. They fear that a slowing global economy, especially the U.S., could weaken demand.

Overseas, Asian stocks completed mostly higher, but Japan’s Nikkei shut down. European stocks rallied in midday trading.

Lots of corporate news this morning, first and foremost, of course, is Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)’s bid for Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). The largest software maker, bid $44.6 billion in cash and stock for the largest internet portal. This bid is 62% above Yahoo’s closing price on Thursday. Naturally, shares of YHOO are shooting up nearly 59% in premarket trading as it is difficult to see another company bidding higher.

Meanwhile, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) shares are down over 5.7% in premarket trading (although they were down over 9% before the Microsoft/Yahoo! news) after the largest search engine reported disappointing earnings Thursday after the close. Excluding one-time charges, Google stated it would have made $4.43 per share - a penny below the average estimate.

And after already speculating in that direction, Motorola (NYSE: MOT)’s board Thursday stated that is would explore selling or otherwise disposing of its largest unit — the handset one. MOT shares are up 14.8% in premarket trading.

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Filed under: Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) bid $44.6 billion in cash and stock for Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO). This bid is 62% above Yahoo’s closing price on Thursday.

This is great news for Yahoo shareholders since its new CEO is clearly in over his head — flailing around with mediocre performance and an ineffectual combination of headcount reductions and investments in long-term goals that have tiny chance of actually being achieved. Like Rupert Murdoch’s bid for Dow Jones, Microsoft’s price is so high that it is hard to imagine another bidder topping it.

For Microsoft, the Yahoo bid is clearly focused on counteracting Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)’s dominance of on the internet advertising. When combined with Microsoft’s on the internet properties — which had about 8% share of total online spending — with Yahoo, which had about 19% share, the two companies will have a combined market share of about 27%. This is much closer to Google’s 32%.

But it’s possible that Microsoft’s move to consolidate its position is coming at a time when on the web advertising sales are slowing down as Google’s results reported yesterday were disappointing. And the number of U.S. World wide web queries dropped 3.9% last month. Nevertheless, Google dominates this slowing market — bookkeeping for 75% of U.S. search advertising in 2007, up from 60% in 2006.

The market likes the deal with Yahoo up 58% in premarket (getting close to the proposed bid), Google down 9.6% and Microsoft down 2.3%. It should be interesting to see whether any other bidders emerge for Yahoo.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

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Filed under: Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

It is Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO)’s own fault. The new management did nothing good for the company, and the share price kept falling. Now Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has offered a 66% premium to purchase the internet portal. The combination would create a company with more visitors than any internet operation in the world.

The deal would also grant Microsoft to have over 30% of the search market in the U.S., based on comScore numbers. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has about 60%.

From the press release:

Microsoft has offered to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31, representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft’s proposal would grant the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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