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

Word has hit several media outlets that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) will drop the price of its bid for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO).

According to Reuters “Microsoft Corp is evaluating its offer for Yahoo Inc in light of worsening market conditions.” The odds are high that someone at Microsoft leaked the news. Yahoo! shares are down almost 5% after hours.

Microsoft would like nothing more than to have massive shareholders in Yahoo! calling the board and management begging them to take the deal of threatening to sue them if they don’t.

Microsoft knows Yahoo! has no other options, or they would be apparent by now.

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

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Deals, Bad news, News Corp’B’ (NWS)

Fox Interactive Media, the web arm of News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), is reorganizing due to a shortfall in revenue. According to TechCrunch, “The company, under President Peter Levinsohn, will miss their revenue target of $1 billion for the current fiscal year ending June.” The miss could be as much as $100 million. Several of the top sales and marketing people at the unit will be moved or replaced.

The news indicates how hard it is to make money on social networks like News Corp’s MySpace and photo-sharing property Photobucket. Unlike portal sites, social networks are a patchwork of content created by users and are hard to break into content categories like financial, autos, or music the way that advertisers like to target their messages.

The revenue miss also begs the question of whether the other massive social network, Facebook, is worth anywhere near the $15 billion valuation it was given recently in a round of fund-raising.

Social networks may simply be good for users but awful for marketers.

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

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Filed under: Business, World wide web

Yesterday, we posted that Craigslist joined the 20th century with a 1990’s-esque blog to let the world in on what’s going on within the inner self of Craigslist. Today, Craigslist is already making fantastic progress through time. No, the blog still looks enjoy it belongs in 1996, but it is demanding that the fan operated craigslistblog.org surrender it’s domain.

Even though Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster hasn’t asked Tim White, the fan blogger, to halt blogging - he does claim that the domain name infringes on intellectual property and is confusing to the media and the public. That, and some of the content Tim White was using was exclusive to Craigslist and shouldn’t be posted. In an effort to meet halfway, the blog now prominently displays that it is indeed an “unofficial” blog and has removed the content in question, but apparently that is not enough. Probably now that Buckmaster has his own blog he feels the need to defend it with a lawsuit.

If you’re interested in what the exact correspondence was, Valleywag has it available for your viewing pleasure. It is however, sad to see a company like Craigslist resort to 21st century intellectual property chest-beating strongarm tactics instead of engaging the blogger in a civilized manner and at least attempting to come to a mutually agreeable resolution before issuing threats. This is neither going to make Craigslist look good nor will it make them any friends.

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Filed under: Before the bell, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Citigroup Inc. (C), Gap Inc (GPS), News Corp’B’ (NWS), Yamana Gold (AUY), BHP Billiton Ltd ADR (BHP), Rio Tinto plc ADS (RTP)

Before the bell: Investors await jobs data; MOT, GSK, UBS

As the mega-merger that created Citigroup (NYSE: C) is nearing ten years, the Financial Times interviewed John Reed, one of the masterminds behind the deal. Interestingly, he told the paper that the deal was a mistake and blasted several segments and personnel at the bank.

Talking of MySpace music venture, could that affect Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)? Well, that’s at least what TheStreet.com thinks. Just as reports of Apple taking over the top spot as a music retailer came MySpace announcement and with its different partnerships could “potentially give Apple’s iTunes service a run for its money.”

Interesting analyst calls this morning include:

• Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) was downgraded at Credit Suisse from Outperform to Neutral and the target price lowered from $3.75 to $3.
• BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) and Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) were both upgraded by Bernstein from Market Perform to Outperform.
• Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY) was also upgraded by UBS from Neutral to Purchase.
• But The Gap (NYSE: GPS) was downgraded from Outperform to Neutral at Credit Suisse and the target price lowered from $25 to $20.

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