Filed under: Business, World wide web, Google, Yahoo!, Search

Now that Yahoo! has finally decided things are really over with Microsoft, the company has found room in its heart for a new love: Google. The two companies today announced an advertising partnership that will basically place Google AdSense advertisements alongside Yahoo! search results.

The deal isn’t exactly comprehensive. It covers “some of” Yahoo!’s web properties, and the ads will only be displayed in the US and Canada. The agreement is non-exclusive, which means that Yahoo! may display its own ads or ads from other parties as well.

In a press release, Yahoo! says it anticipates to raise about $800 million in revenue per year from the deal. Google, in return, posted a blog entry saying the deal is “good for users, advertisers, and publishers.” The US government isn’t quite convinced yet. Back in April, the Justice Department responded to a test run of a Google/Yahoo! partnership with an investigation. And today the chairman of the US Senate Antitrust Subcommittee said the Senate will be closely analyzing the deal.

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Business, Web services, Microsoft, Social Software, web 2.0

We mentioned Microsoft TownSquare this day, the new offering from Microsoft for internal social networking and document sharing, and we have a screenshot for you to check out.

From what we can see it looks like you get a steady stream of activity based on employee which is really, really cool and helpful, along with an RSS feed to track the activity. From a project management standpoint, this is a huge.

We’ll keep an eye out for more info and keep you up to date. Is this something you would want to use at work, or would it creep you out?

Be sure to check out Microsoft Office Labs too.

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Deals, Market matters, Anheuser-Busch Cos (BUD), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Countrywide Financial (CFC), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Washington Mutual (WM), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Stocks to Purchase, Stocks to Sell, Cramer on BloggingStocks, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT)

TheStreet.com’s Jim Cramer states the market’s a mess, but the S&P oscillator and buyout offers could give an opportunity for trades.

Here we are again. Another unfathomable moment to purchase stocks.

You’ve the financials just falling apart at the seams.

Oil and the grains are out of control.

The Fed chairman and the Treasury secretary have declared the worst is over even as we await the demise of a half-dozen banks, and we question the solvency of Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) (Cramer’s Take) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) (Cramer’s Take). The only stocks working are Mosaic (NYSE: MOS) (Cramer’s Take), Agrium (NYSE: AGU) (Cramer’s Take), Potash (NYSE: POT) (Cramer’s Take) and a handful of natural gas companies.

It’s crazy out there.

And yet my best indicator, the Standard & Poor’s oscillator, which you can order from their Web site, is saying you cannot be short here and should be doing some buying. The oscillator, when it has been at minus 5, has called a bottom almost each time in the last decade, plus or minus a day or two, and a percent or even two, and I’ve long since learned not to see through it.

Look, let’s be honest. It is almost impossible to be bullish here. There’s nothing good happening at all. But I can make a valuation case for much of this market because of that. Of course, it is anecdotal, but consider today’s news story about Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) (Cramer’s Take). Sure, the $46.4 billion bid is a 35% premium to the 30-day average, as the Journal points out, but InBev is buying this worldwide company for a song relative to five years ago because of the weak dollar.

There are so many BUDs out there that you have to ask whether we couldn’t see more of them. We have had a couple. I expected a torrent and I haven’t gotten it. But the point is larger: stocks are cheap, and in euro or yen or zloty or whatever terms, they’re dirt-cheap.

No, I am not foolish enough to “like” this market. I am saying I respect my oversold indicators. And I’m going to put my spare cash that I have in Action Alerts PLUS — and I have been raising cash — to work today and tomorrow because of that oscillator.

Random musings: Obama adviser story says it all about both FNM and Countrywide (NYSE: CFC) (Cramer’s Take), two total ne’er-do-wells. … If Lehman (NYSE: LEH) (Cramer’s Take) catches a bid this day, the market will rock. That’s become the key stock. … Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) (Cramer’s Take) and AIG (NYSE: AIG) (Cramer’s Take) boards will be sued, I predict, if they keep these menaces at the helm. … The CSX (NYSE: CSX) (Cramer’s Take) ruling bugs me. If they violated the law, why not just stop them? But Judge Kaplan’s real smart, so he has to know what he is doing.

——————————————————————-
RELATED LINKS:
Anheuser-Busch Shares Frothy on Bid News
How Oil and Water Futures Affect Ag Stocks
——————————————————————-

Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com’s sites and serves as an adviser to the company’s CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in the stocks mentioned.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Share This

Share This

Filed under: International markets, Deals, Competitive strategy, Starbucks (SBUX)

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) can’t seem to do well in the US. People who feel poor don’t want $5 coffee and the chain seems to have built too many stores here. The company has even gone so far as to shut some.

But, bright on the horizon, the Seattle-based company sees Europe as a potential region for expansion. So, the company will open 150 new stories on the continent. According to Reuters, “The coffee shops are to be opened at airports and railway stations and come as the chain looks to offset a slumping U.S. market with overseas growth.” The new stores will be franchised and run by a UK company called SSP. At least that probably means Starbucks will not be taking all of the financial risk.

Starbucks may find that a recession in Europe is likely to keep people out of costly coffee shops just as much as its has in the US. But, the new push into the continent has a more telling aspect. Starbucks does not have the taste for risk that it once did. There was a time when the company would have taken all of the danger and all of the reward to push more aggressively into a massive market.

Starbucks isn’t only suffering from slowing sales. It is getting timid.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Deals, Management, Citigroup Inc. (C)

Citigroup (NYSE: C) CEO Vikram Pandit was a famous hedge-fund manager. After Citi bought his company, he was in a position to move into the top job. It is lucky he was moved into the corner office months ago as one of the funds Citi picked up from the company he sold them is being shut.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Mr. Pandit personally reaped at least $165 million when Citigroup bought Old Lane in July 2007.” Nice work if you can get it.

The news may state little about Pandit’s money management skills as he has been away from the running of the fund, Old Lane, for some time. It does, however, put the spotlight on him once again at a time when his capability to run Citi is being questioned by the company’s shareholders.

Pandit was brought in as an agent of change, no matter how awful and overused that term is. So far, he has done completely nothing to deserve that description. Yesterday, Citi stock fell below $20 for the first time since March. Investors had hoped he would begin to sell of some of the bank’s less critical assets to build the the capital base of the firm.

Instead, he has acted pretty much the same as his predecessor Chuck Prince. The share price points to that.

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

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Deals, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), Starbucks (SBUX), Amazon.com (AMZN), General Motors (GM), Caterpillar (CAT), Amer Intl Group (AIG)

Before the bell: Futures higher after BUD offer, ahead of retail sales

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) shareholders — former AIG director, Eli Broad, and two fund managers , who together control about 4% — are asking for changes to the management and board of the world’s largest insurer, which has been struggling with the fallout of the subprime mortgage mess.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) stated it will spend $1 billion over the next two years to expand capacity in five of its Illinois factories, and will shift production at some of its plants to address the demand for machines used mostly in mining and big infrastructure projects.
Also, CAT and Navistar International Corp. (NASDAQ: NAVZ) will start cooperating to pursue new on-highway truck business and cooperate on an variety of engine platforms.

Starbucks Coffee Co. (NASDAQ: SBUX) stated Thursday that it has reached a licensing agreement with SSP to open coffee retail stores in more than 150 airports and train stations in Europe. Financial terms were not disclosed.

William Ackerman, the billionaire hedge fund manager who is a major stakeholder in Borders Group Inc. (NYSE: BGP) is pushing for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) to go for Borders, saying it could become the “bricks-and-clicks” component of Amazon’s nationwide sales strategy.

BusinessWeek has an interesting article about how in Japan Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) will have to work together, despite being direct competitors in some things.
Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE: TMA) shares are climbing over 5.5% in premarket trading after it said it swung to a first-quarter loss of $3.31 billion due to delinquent loans.

General Motors Corp (NYSE: GM)’s head of European operations sees European sales slumping to levels not seen in decades due to rising oil prices, high commodity costs and the strength of the euro.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Before the bell, Deals, Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), Anheuser-Busch Cos (BUD), Economic data, Oil

Stock futures were higher early Thursday morning as investors’ mood lifted following the $46 billion takeover bid for brewer InBev made for Anheuser-Busch and ahead of what’s expected to be a positive retail sales report.

U.S. stocks once again dropped sharply Wednesday as oil prices shot up by over $5 a barrel, and the troubles in the financials were in focus again. The Dow industrials declined 205 points, or 1.68%, the Nasdaq Composite lost 54 points, or 2.24%, and the S&P 500 dropped 22 points, or 1.69%.

At 8:30 a.m. EDT, Might retail sales are due out and economists estimate sales grew by 0.5% during the last month, 0.7% excluding autos.
At the same time, weekly jobless claims numbers will be released. While recently the jobless claims data trended superior than anticipated, Friday’s employment figures too the market by surprise as unemployment jumped from 5% to 5.5%.
Also reported at that time are May import and export prices.
Then, at 10:00 a.m., April business inventories are scheduled for release.

Meanwhile, Asian markets followed the declines in the U.S. The dollar rose against the euro and yen in expectations of a rebound in retail before, and oil prices eased as a result of the dollar gains.

What’s making headlines this morning is of course the $46 billion unsolicited all-cash bid brewer InBev put in for Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD). This amounts to $65 a share, but the bid is unsolicited and may find resistance both from within from the Busch family, and without due to political reasons during an election year. BUD shares are trading 7.5% higher in premarket action.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) is closing its hedge fund Old Lane Partners co-founded by the bank’s chief executive, Vikram Pandit, and will buy what’s left of its assets, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Deals, Anheuser-Busch Cos (BUD)

It’s tough to keep secret a $46 billion deal. That’s certainly the case with InBev, which has been rumored to be preparing a mega bid for Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD).

Well, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the scuttlebutt is correct. InBev is offering Anheuser-Busch a mouth-watering $65-per-share buyout.

Of course, it’s unsolicited (that is, hostile). I’m sure there will be lots of resistance, but it can’t be ignored, the folks at Anheuser-Busch will have to wage a tough battle.

The company has relatively weak defenses. Plus, the founding family only has a small minority stake. More importantly, Anheuser-Busch’s shareholders will likely be interested in taking a premium.

Might there be a higher bid? Perhaps, but InBev has put together a good offer, and it will be tough for Anheuser-Busch to find a viable substitute.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar On the web Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services, Microsoft, web 2.0

So we all know the saga of Microsoft and Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook, Facebook and Yahoo, and so on and so forth.

But at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston Microsoft is expected to show off their own new social networking project that the company’s been “incubating” for a while. It’s called “TownSquare”.

TownSquare is a social networking platform for your company to use internally. Apparently it even looks like Facebook. There’s probably a village idiot in each company too that’ll use it for something inappropriate, which is the true test of a full on corporate piece of software.

The goal is to provide a system for storing anniversaries, job promotions, shared docs, and other information about employees. It actually sounds kind of neat and useful.

Microsoft has been using it since January with 8,000 employees and no word on whether it displays in World wide web Explorer correctly (we told you all jokes aside, “for now”)

Hopefully some screenshots will surface soon.

[via zdnet]

Read

Share This

Share This

Postbulletin.com: Business news for Rochester, MN
Rochester, MN business news and brankruptcies. FDA: Minneapolis seafood company has violated safety laws ; Suze Orman: Is Washington serious about credit card reform?

business.gov.au home page
A gateway to information, transactions and services to assist business people in their dealings with all levels of Australian government. Planning, starting and operating a

Sioux City Journal: Business
BUSINESS Meetings / Seminars > No new content posted today. Click below to link to recent stories

The Money Channel at Business.com: Finance News and Expert Advice
Discover business finance solutions for your company at the Business.com Money Channel. Read our Money Insider news blog for the latest buzz on financial products and services

Ledger-Enquirer.com | Business | Columbus GA Business
Business Counting on Dillard’s Peachtree Mall awaits Arkansas-based department store chain’s next move

SLO County Business
Welcome to the official web site of the County of San Luis Obispo, California, USA. As part of eGovernment, the goal of this web site is to make it easier for county residents and

Business.gov - Official Guide to State and Local Business Laws and
Business.gov’s State and Local Business Guide provides access to plain language resources that help small businesses comply with state and local laws and regulations.

Business - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington
Business Trade with China tops to-do list; Sit down for a Q&A with local business leaders and news makers.

Chicago Business News, Analysis & Articles | lists, rankings
Offers daily local business news, plus links to public records and local and national business-oriented sites. Features personalized email alerts, business calendar submissions

Corpus Christi Caller-Times : News, Business, Sports, Entertainment
Corpus Christi TX, daily on the web newspaper covering local news, business, sports, entertainment, weather, community, outdoors and more! Hermansen alert after being shot while

Share This

Share This