AOL completes acquisition of Bebo
AOL announced yesterday, that it has completed its acquisition of Bebo, a global social media network that will form the centerpiece of AOL’s newly created People Networks business unit. Bebo’s CEO Joanna Shields will serve as Executive Vice President of AOL and President of People Networks, which combines Bebo, AIM, ICQ and AOL’s other community platforms and reaches about 80 million users worldwide.* Shields will report to AOL President and COO Ron Grant.
“With the addition of Bebo and the creation of People Networks, AOL is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the exploding social media space by delivering a more personal experience for consumers and a better way for advertisers to engage them,” said Randy Falco, Chairman and CEO of AOL. “AOL is now fully focused on growing our business in three key areas - our advertising network, publishing and people networks - by delivering relevant content and advertising across the Web, and we’re making great progress in each area.”
In March, AOL’s publishing network hit an all-time high in both unique visitors and page views, the sixth consecutive month of growth, according to comScore Media Metrix, which also ranked AOL’s Platform-A the leading online display advertising network, with a reach of 91% of the domestic online audience.
One of the first initiatives for People Networks will be to integrate AOL’s other community applications and tools, including IM, chat and mail functionality into Bebo. It will also let users merge AIM and Bebo profiles so they can use common screen names without re-registering. AIM is the leading instant messaging network in the U.S., with more than 30 million users. ICQ has 28 million active users worldwide.
In addition, People Networks will integrate other recent AOL acquisitions, including widget technology company Goowy Media and social search question and answer service Yedda. Integration plans also include the cross-distribution of AOL and Bebo content and applications to expand the scale of the combined networks. For example, AOL will promote Bebo’s successful original programming � including the award-winning ‘KateModern’, ‘Sofia’s Diary’ and ‘The Gap Year’ - across several AOL channels. Also, Bebo is integrating AOL music and entertainment content.
“This combination is about more than just putting products together, it’s about bringing together the extraordinary management teams from both Bebo and AOL,” said Shields. “When you combine Bebo, AIM and ICQ, and AOL’s other community products, we not only have an unmatched offering for consumers, we have the best leaders in the business to drive our success going forward.”
To enhance AOL’s ability to monetize Bebo and its other social networks, the company recently announced plans to introduce a ‘content screening’ tool. Based on the same technology AOL uses with its award-winning parental controls, this tool will help advertisers overcome concerns about advertising on social networking sites with user-generated content by awarding these pages a quality score and placing ads only on pages that surpass a quality threshold. AOL plans to launch its content screening tool in the third quarter.
Founded in 2005, Bebo quickly became one of the leading social networks in the UK. It is ranked No. 1 in Ireland and New Zealand, and No. 3 in the U.S. in terms of engagement. Bebo’s worldwide users spend an average of 30 minutes a day on the site. Bebo has approximately 100 employees operating in offices in the UK, San Francisco and Austin, TX. It will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL.
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Google outgrowing it’s shoes with Google Health?
Google on Monday launched a beta test of its Google Health service to archive medical records and find medical services.
The site is a personal portal that can be used to upload, store, and view personal information, retrieve records from partners, investigate health matters, set alerts such as a reminder to take medication, and run applications that can help your well being.
Google has been talking about the health initiative for a year. Now, “we actually have the product,” said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience.
The service will never sell a patient’s information and will only share it with the patient’s permission, Zeiger said. And a user can revoke rights to share at any time. “No Google Health user will ever find their Google Health information as search results anywhere on Google. That information is yours,” Zeiger said. To join, users must agree to various terms of use, including this: “When you provide your information through Google Health, you give Google a license to use and distribute it in connection with Google Health and other Google services.”
A small issue: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) doesn’t govern what Google does, and after that, the only recourse is trying to get the Federal Trade Commission to enforce companies’ privacy policies. From the ToS:
When you provide your information through Google Health, you give Google a license to use and distribute it in connection with Google Health and other Google services. However, Google may only use health information you provide as permitted by the Google Health Privacy Policy, your Sharing Authorization, and applicable law. Google is not a “covered entity” under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the regulations promulgated thereunder (”HIPAA”). As a result, HIPAA does not apply to the transmission of health information by Google to any third party.
I don’t understand all the legal jargon. I don’t understand the implications of sharing data with Google. And if for some reason Google screws up, what are my options?
Till now, I have been comfortable sharing my emails with Google (I use Gmail) as there is nothing too confidential, can sharing my search preferences and patterns with Big G, etc. etc. But my health data? Unless the reasons and motivations are too compelling, I am not going to do that. And today, it is far from compelling.
Google addresses the HIPAA concerns in a blog post and features a chart (shown below) outlining the differences between HIPAA and its privacy policy. Anyone sharing health data with Google should read both the post and the explainer on the differences.
Thanks Google for putting up the portal with information on health 101. But I prefer to play it safe - and am not sharing any medical records. Not in foreseeable future.
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HIPAA |
Google Health |
| Do individuals have access to their medical records and health information? | Under HIPAA, patients can request a copy of their medical records from their health care provider. This typically requires completing release paperwork and may require a printing or copying fee. In some circumstances, availability of certain records may be limited. | In Google Health, users have free and immediate web access at all times to the medical records and health information they store in their account. |
| Are individuals informed of how their information is used and protected? | Health care providers must provide patients with written notice of their HIPAA privacy rights. | Google provides users with a privacy policy when they sign up for Google Health.
The policy is also posted online, along with Frequently Asked Questions, allowing users to reference it at any time. |
| What information is protected? | Under HIPAA, personally identifiable information is protected.
De-identified patient information is not protected. Aggregate, de-identified patient information can be published and shared with third parties. |
Under the Google Health privacy policy, personally identifiable information is protected.
De-identified information, including our anonymous logs data, is restricted and cannot be shared with third parties. Aggregate, de-identified user information can be used to publish trends. |
| When is information sharing permitted? | Health care providers may share information with patient authorization, and may share without authorization, for certain purposes, such as:
|
Google Health may share information with explicit user authorization, and may share without authorization in certain limited circumstances, such as:
|
| When is information sharing required? | Under various federal and state laws, health care providers must share patient information to comply with court orders and subpoenas.
HIPAA itself also allows health care providers to voluntarily share patient information with law enforcement without a subpoena and without permission from or notice to the patient. |
Under various federal and state laws, Google must share user information to comply with court orders and subpoenas. When possible, we notify the user in order to give them the opportunity to object.
Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), Google may not voluntarily share most user information with law enforcement. |
| How does the individual authorize sharing? | Patient authorization is not required for institutions to share information in the case of certain permitted disclosures, described above. When authorization is required, patients provide consent to share information through a written authorization form that must satisfy certain HIPAA requirements. Sharing is revocable under HIPAA. | Users must request and give Google permission to share information through electronic authorization in their Google Health account. Sharing is revocable at any time. |
| Is information protected when used by third parties? | If the third party is covered by HIPAA, HIPAA rules apply. If the third party (e.g., a patient’s family member or employer) is not covered by HIPAA, HIPAA rules do not apply. | If the third party is covered by HIPAA, HIPAA rules apply. If the third party (e.g., a patient’s family member or employer) is not covered by HIPAA, HIPAA rules do not apply.
Online services not covered by HIPAA that wish to integrate with Google Health must comply with Google Health’s Developer Policies, which establish strict privacy standards for how they collect, use, or share user information. |
| Can information be seen or used internally by a health care provider’s or health plan’s personnel or by Google employees? | Employees in particular job functions may have access to patient information without patient authorization as reasonably necessary to carry out duties relating to treatment, reimbursement, or health care operations, such as to communicate about health benefit plans or to recommend alternative treatments or therapies. | A limited number of employees in particular job functions may have access to user information in order to operate and improve Google Health. Users consent to this limited internal use when they sign up for Google Health. |
| Do individuals have a right to correct inaccurate information in their records? | Patients can request corrections in their records, and the service or doctor can reject or accept the request. | Users can delete any of their health information stored on Google Health and edit any information they have entered in their account at any time, and their account will reflect their changes immediately. They can also edit information entered into their account by a health care provider with the provider’s approval. |
| Can individuals find out who has viewed or added information to their records? | Patients can request to see to whom their information has been disclosed in the last six years by requesting this information in writing from their health care provider. However, most disclosures, such as those for treatment, payment, and health care operations, do not have to be reported in response to such a request. | Every time data is added to a user’s profile, the user is updated with a ‘notice’ on the main page of their profile. Users can see their full list of notices at any time.
Users can view a full list of anyone that can currently view or add information to their account at any time in the settings tab of their Google Health account. This list does not include those who previously had access but from whom the user later revoked reading or editing privileges. Additionally, individual items that have been added to a user’s account include a source–the name of the health care provider or institution that added the information –even if the source no longer has reading or editing privileges on the account. |
| How is information kept secure? | HIPAA requires that health care providers and other services maintain a minimum standard of “reasonable and appropriate safeguards to prevent intentional or unintentional use or disclosure of health information”. | Google Health secures information by:
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| Who enforces privacy protections? | Under HIPAA, the Department of Health and Human Services enforces HIPAA privacy protections through civil and criminal penalties. Read more information about HIPAA enforcement from the HHS Office of Civil Rights. | Under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, the FTC enforces privacy protections in the Google Health privacy policy through civil and criminal penalties.
State attorneys general and district attorneys have similar authority under general consumer protection laws. |
90% of Corporate Virtual World Projects Fail in 18 Months
Nine out of ten businesses that have launched virtual worlds saw them fail in 18 months or less, according to a recent research from Gartner, which faulted companies for getting hung up on the technology rather than thinking about how people use it.
“Businesses have learned some hard lessons,” says Steve Prentice, vice president and fellow at Gartner. “They need to realize that virtual worlds mark the transition from Web pages to Web places and a successful virtual presence starts with people, not physics.”
The adoption of virtual worlds for the enterprise began picking up steam this year, buoyed by the success of Second Life, a 3-D environment in the consumer space where people interact with one another as avatars (virtual representations of themselves).
Other consultancies, such as Forrester, predicted virtual worlds would rival the internet in overall importance to businesses.
Despite the high failure rate the research did indicate virtual worlds will catch on as companies understand what types of use cases work best for implementing them. By 2012, around 70 percent of organizations will have set up private virtual worlds, Gartner predicts. Virtual worlds set up for employees to collaborate internally will have a high success rate because of “lower expectations, clearer objectives and better constraints.”
The other upside to virtual worlds for the enterprise: cost. According to Gartner, the cost of implementing a corporate virtual platform averages $50,000, and cheaper trials can cost $5,000. The report argues this low-cost will encourage more experimentation by businesses.
Last OpenSUSE Beta: 11.0 Beta 3
Facebook’s CTO Adam D’Angelo to Leave
The word got out, and now it is confirmed. CTO Adam D’Angelo to Leave Facebook. D’Angelo wrote a letter to Facebook staff on Friday about the move. He said he wanted a break. But, according to sources close to the company, D’Angelo felt his responsibilities no longer fit well with his skills and interests. There were rumors of some tension with Zuckerberg too. But sources said D’Angelo simply wanted to do something different (and he is only 23!). He is a friend of founder Mark Zuckerberg since high school. I am sure there is not more to read in this news than will be made to look, but the timing is kind of uncanny. Facebook Connect announcement last week.. and then this. Hmmm.
According to Venturebeat, Zuckerberg and D’Angelo met in high school and developed a music discovery service called Synapse that garnered positive press and subsequently interest (but no purchase offers) from large companies looking to hire the young developers. Zuckerberg, as most readers know, went to on Harvard and started Facebook out of his dorm room. D’Angelo was one of the first people he tapped to join him.
In fact, according to this Harvard Crimson article, Zuckerberg moved the company from Boston to Palo Alto, Calif. in 2005 in part to be closer to D’Angelo, who was attending Caltech at the time.
Facebook will not be replacing the CTO role, sources said, but has a search underway for a VP of engineering.
Adam kept a low profile for himself all along. He was universally loved at Facebook, says a source close to him. Wish him all the best!
About Adam D’Angelo: From his LinkedIn Profile
I am interested in social networks, viral engineering, development methodology, web applications, platforms, collaborative filtering, reputation systems, data mining, machine vision, computational trust, online markets, and privacy.
Specialties:
algorithms, machine learning, distributed systems, optimization, scalability, decentralized networks, programming languages
Google May Run Display Advertisements With Image Search Results
Google is considering running illustrated advertisements alongside the results of Web queries for pictures, moving beyond its text-based ad business. Matching graphical-display ads with image searches “represents a large opportunity, and there’s lot of potential for advertising revenue there,” Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president, said.
Google is seeking new sources of revenue as growth slows for the four-line text ads that generate almost all of its sales. We haven’t found a proper way to monetize image search to date,” said Mayer, who oversees search products. “You may see us roll out an ads-image search in the future, but when we do you’ll know that’s because we found a way that ultimately enhances user happiness with the product.”
Google calculated in 2006 that it was giving up as much as $200 million a year by not including text advertisements with its image search results, and that figure has probably increased since, Mayer said. Trials showed that text ads drove people away from conducting image searches, and Google dropped that idea.
Display ads may work better with image searches because they seem more natural to people looking for pictures, Mayer said. While the company has done mock-ups of how it might present the ads, it hasn’t tested them on users, she said.
News Source Bloomberg
My question: Can they do that without violating copyright and ownership rights of image owners?
Yahoo Shareholders Aim To Reignite Microsoft Deal
The Los Angeles Times reports, “Yahoo Inc. shareholders are so mad about the company’s failure to cut a deal with Microsoft Corp. that several said they would consider a proxy fight to oust Chief Executive Jerry Yang and Yahoo’s board of directors if that would bring the Seattle suitor back to the table.” An opposing board slate “would get ‘overwhelming’ support from shareholders, said Larry Haverty, portfolio manager with Gamco Investors Inc., whose funds own 1.2 million shares apiece in Yahoo and Microsoft.” The Times continues, “But time is not on their side. In an apparent effort to blunt the shareholder firestorm, Yahoo on Monday set its annual meeting for July 3, giving investors little time to nominate a slate.” On Tuesday, “several large Yahoo shareholders burned up the phone lines in a campaign to persuade Yahoo’s independent board members to reconsider Microsoft’s offer. They also made overtures to Microsoft, which withdrew its sweetened $47.5-billion offer over the weekend.”
The AP reported, “After fending off months of threats by Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc.’s directors still will have to fight for their jobs as the company’s own irate shareholders plot a mutiny. … ‘We are hoping to turn that (meeting) into ‘Independence Day’ for Yahoo’s shareholders,’ said Eric Jackson, president of Ironfire Capital.”
The Financial Times reports, “Hopes that Yahoo would be forced back to the negotiating table with Microsoft lifted its shares in heavy trading yesterday, with the stock rising 5.54 per cent by the close in New York.” The share price rebound “follows strong criticism of Yahoo from some of its biggest shareholders, who have argued that it was wrong to hold out so strongly for a price of $37 a share from Microsoft, which had offered $33 a share.”
The Christian Science Monitor reports, “After the collapse of Microsoft’s acquisition bid and the plunge in its stock Monday, Yahoo’s management is now under pressure to avert a shareholder revolt. Some shareholders simply decided to sell. One activist investor called for the overthrow of the current board. Others are pursuing shareholder lawsuit, with more expected.” The Monitor notes, “The possibility that disillusioned shareholders may sell or overturn the board, however, puts pressure on Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang to give them some hope of a turnaround. That might involve wooing a different buyer, like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Or, Yahoo may continue to pursue a partnership with Google.”
James B. Stewart, a columnist for SmartMoney magazine, writes at the Wall Street Journal, “As a Yahoo shareholder, I was furious over its bungling of a potentially lucrative sale to Microsoft, especially after Yahoo shares plunged Monday on the news. Nothing in Yahoo’s official statement from Chairman Roy Bostock made me feel any better. It seemed especially disingenuous for Mr. Bostock to say ‘we are pleased that so many of our shareholders joined us’ in the view that Microsoft’s bid — its latest was $33 a share — had undervalued Yahoo. And just who might those supportive shareholders be? No names were mentioned. No one asked me.” He continues, “The droves of shareholders voting with their wallets on Monday, pushing Yahoo shares down to $24 and change, a 15% decline, would suggest that there weren’t all that many. At the very least, Yahoo owes its shareholders a detailed explanation why it believes Yahoo is worth perhaps $40 a share, or more.” Stewart comments, “It all depends on what Yahoo does now. In my view, the company has to abandon ideas like teaming up with Time Warner’s AOL and face up to some hard decisions. It should admit that its own search-advertising effort has failed and vigorously pursue a relationship with Google.”
Erick Schonfeld wrote at TechCrunch, “Here’s the latest Yahoo rumor that we’re chasing: The Yahoo board of directors met earlier today and authorized chairman Roy Bostock, not CEO Jerry Yang, to call Ballmer about re-starting negotiations. In fact, this rumor may have been behind the small rally in Yahoo’s stock today, which closed up 5.5 percent to $25.72 (still down from where it closed on Friday at $28.67). If this is true, it makes you wonder who is really in charge at Yahoo.” He continued, “Yang has been getting a lot of grief from angry shareholders for not taking Microsoft’s $33 a share offer, and instead holding out for $37 or $38. Now his story keeps changing on when he learned about the $33 bid. But when Ballmer balked and called off the deal, that may have been when Yang’s grip on power began to weaken. What happened next was curious. In Yahoo’s official press release on May 3 responding to Microsoft’s termination of negotiations, it was Bostock who issued the primary statement from Yahoo, not Yang.” Schonfeld noted, “Whether or not Yahoo’s board actually met today and authorized Bostock to restart negotiations is entirely speculation at this point, say our sources. But here’s one more interesting tidbit. Today, Yahoo board member Eric Hippeau was supposed to speak on a panel with me and others at the In-Call Media Summit in New York (where we both live). He didn’t show up. Another venture capitalist from Softbank took his place. When I asked around what happened to Hippeau, I was told by someone else at the conference who would have known that he is in Sunnyvale. So maybe the board did meet today after all.”
Microsoft’s Gates Says Ballmer To Make Decisions Regarding Yahoo Bid. The AP reported, “Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday that ‘key decisions’ following the company’s withdrawal of a $47.5 billion bid for Yahoo will be made by CEO Steve Ballmer.” Gates “was asked about the software maker’s plans after the Yahoo bid fell apart, including whether Microsoft would pursue another deal of the same size elsewhere. … ‘Well, the key decisions on that will be made by Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer, who took a look at Yahoo and decided that on our own he likes the stuff that we’re doing,’ Gates said, according to a pool report. ‘We need to show the innovation and it’s a very competitive space,” he added. “I wouldn’t rule out some partnerships but we don’t have anything imminent there.’”
Blogger Says Microsoft Deal With AOL Is “Obvious Choice.” Erick Schonfeld wrote at TechCrunch, “With Microsoft walking away from the Yahoo deal, there’s been a lot of talk about what it’s next best option would be. Going after AOL is an obvious choice. It has the ad inventory (aka pageviews) Microsoft needs, has its own collection of growing online advertising businesses, and has a very willing seller in parent Time Warner. … And AOL isn’t exactly hitting on all cylinders right now, so it could be a much cheaper, cleaner purchase.” He continued, “Of course, Microsoft is still talking to everybody at this point, except maybe Yahoo. Whether it truly intends to set its sights on AOL is unclear because it needs to talk to AOL at the very least as a strategic ploy to try to thwart any possible deal between Yahoo and AOL (which has always been a possibility in the background). But at least Wall Street doesn’t seem to think that a deal is imminent. Yahoo’s shares are up 4 percent from yesterday to $25 a share right now, while Time Warner’s shares are pretty much flat at $16 after rising about 6 percent last week. Maybe Yahoo’s talks with Google are going better than Microsoft’s talks with AOL.
Collapse Of Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Affects Advertisers . The AP reported, “The collapse of Microsoft Corp.’s pursuit of Yahoo Inc. is leaving advertisers pining for other ways to reach mass audiences on the Web and to counteract Google Inc.’s dominance of the online ad market.” Advertisers “can still distribute ads across smaller Web sites through networks that all major Internet companies run, but such an approach doesn’t have the same appeal as reaching Yahoo’s massive audience all in one place, something that would have been even more compelling once Microsoft’s Web sites were thrown in, too. That’s because advertisers can’t negotiate premium placements and coordinate promotions across the network the same way they can with a single site.” The AP noted, “Without a powerful new portal to suck up advertising dollars, online advertising power could continue to shift to the hot areas of the moment, such as mobile phones and social-networking sites like Facebook.”
Review: Yoono: Social Life aggregator
In this social networking tools clutter, it is a pain to sift through the information that you really “may” care for. A few weeks back, I was ranting off on why I will not use twitter. And then I may feel a lot older when I get into the FB or Myspace forums. LinkedIn still remains my favorite, and the one I find most useful in my professional capacity.
Anyway, I digress. Two recent posts (on webware and techcrunch) made me look at this browser plugin called Yoono, for discovering and sharing Web content and to help track your friends’ activities. The tool integrates with several popular social networks and microblogging services including Twitter, letting you access and interact with the communities of all of them in one place.
While you are surfing, Yoono instantly suggests what others have discovered: websites, people and articles. You can create a rich scrapbook of your favorite stuff with the new “Buzz It!” feature, one-click grab and share videos, photos and texts from any web page. Yoono keeps your scrapbook and original Firefox bookmarks synchronized across your computers.
In a nutshell: Yoono is a browser sidebar that will aggregate your social network upates and allow you to update all statuses at once. In addition, while you surf, Yoono displays a list of other web pages that are “people-rated” - others have classified them in their favorites. You can also find other users who have a particular web page in their favorites.
See a demo:
If you’re an avid Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr user, they you’ll need to download this free app to manage your accounts. Check out Yoono.com, but watch the video below first to see what it can do for you (source: techiediva).
The UI is really neat and clean, looks impressive. It is also impressive how much has been packed into a plugin. I am sure designing such an app is a challenge - whom to target, what features to bring in, what to leave out. Overall, I am quite impressed. I may end up actually using it!
Users can now view related pictures, music, and videos from pages they’re on. (Credit: CNET Networks)
Digg Does Data Portability
From the Digg Blog: Among the recent enhancements:
- We’ve added XFN to your user profile. XFN is an open standard that makes it easier for other social Web sites to recognize your Digg friends.
- We’ve improved support for hCard, another open data format for communicating Digg user names, nicknames, and photos, so that your favorite friend-following tools can more easily display your friends’ activity.
- We’ve added RDFa, making Digg part of the “semantic web” where Web pages become more sophisticated, beyond simply words and pictures.
These efforts support our philosophy that you own your data.
These steps are a good move forward for DataPortability. But still a long way to go, Digg!
Report: Microsoft-Yahoo deal may go hostile Friday
Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported early Friday that the world’s largest software maker may be preparing to go straight to Internet pioneer Yahoo’s shareholders. An announcement was “likely” to come Friday, according to the report, though the newspaper said its sources cautioned that Microsoft may delay.
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told employees in a company assembly Thursday that he knows how much he’d spend to buy Yahoo and accelerate his company’s Internet play.
“We’re willing to pay for that at some level, and beyond that level we’re not willing to pay for it. I know exactly what I think Yahoo is worth to me,” the executive said. “I won’t go a dime above, and I will go to what I think it’s worth if that gets the deal done.”
But he didn’t offer a figure, and he didn’t say whether Microsoft is considering raising its unsolicited bid, worth $44.6 billion at the time it was made in early February.
The offer is currently worth about $42.4 billion, or $29.48 per share, based on Microsoft Corp.’s closing stock price Thursday. Yahoo Inc. has rejected the offer, saying it undervalues the company. Microsoft’s board has been considering whether to raise the bid to as much as $33 per share, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ballmer didn’t provide any new insight into the company’s efforts to buy the Silicon Valley pioneer during the meeting at Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters, but he did indicate that an end to months of speculation was near.
“We ought to announce something in relatively short order,” Ballmer told employees.
His comments were first reported by Silicon Alley Insider, an online technology news site, and confirmed by a Microsoft spokesman.
Ballmer added that buying Yahoo is just one of many moving parts in the software maker’s strategy to compete with Google Inc. in search and Web advertising, and that if neither a friendly nor a hostile deal “look good,” he’s willing to walk away.
Microsoft’s board met Wednesday but reached no decision on a next step, the Journal reported. The software maker had given Yahoo until last weekend to agree to a deal or face the prospect of an ugly proxy fight.
Meanwhile, Yahoo is exploring a possible advertising partnership with Internet search leader Google Inc. or a merger with the online operations of Time Warner Inc.’s AOL as possible defenses if Microsoft tries a hostile takeover.
Impressed by a two-week test completed last month, Yahoo could firm up a long-term deal within a week, according to the Journal. Any alliance between Yahoo and Google would face intense antitrust scrutiny, however, because the two companies control more than 80 percent of the U.S. market for search advertising.
Yahoo and Google hope to allay those concerns by structuring their deal so their rivals, including Microsoft, could participate in an auction-based system, the Journal said.