The CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer just announced that Microsoft is willing to invest 5% to 10% of its operating income back into its search business for up to five years. "Our shareholders, I told them we were willing to spend 5 to 10 percent of operating income for up to five years in this business, and we feel like we can get an economic return". Ballmer went on to say " "We should have … [Read more...]

According to comScore, Microsoft's Bing.com search engine share rose for the second straight week. Bing.com's search share in the United States rose to 12.1% between June 8 and 12 -- up from 11.3% between June 1 and 5, and up from 9.1% during the week prior to the engine's launch. Microsoft's average daily penetration among U.S. searchers also increased by three percentage points to 16.7% … [Read more...]

According to the research group ComScore, Microsoft's revamped search engine, Bing, is off to a good start in its first week since launch. According to ComScore, Bing.com market share is up to 11.1% from 9.1% (for Microsoft Live Search). "So far it appears that the lifts in searcher penetration and engagement have held relatively steady throughout the five-day period," said Mike Hurt, … [Read more...]

The CEO of Yahoo, Carol Bartz,  in speaking on a possible deal with Microsoft said today at the Bank of America U.S. Technology conference: "I personally think we'd be better off if we never heard the word Microsoft" Bartz went on to day that a search deal between Yahoo and Microsoft could provide savings to Yahoo of not much more than $500M-$700M. Bartz said Bing will give Microsoft some … [Read more...]

Time Warner announced today official plans to spin off AOL.com around the end of this year. Time Warner's board is expected to meet today and approve the plan. Once completed, the deal would once again make AOL an independent, publicly traded company. AOL bought Time Warner in 2001 for $147 billion dollars which has largely been regarded as one of the worst convinced mergers of all … [Read more...]

Yahoo's CEO,  Carol Bartz said Wednesday she would be open to striking a search deal with Microsoft if they offered "boatloads of money." "If there's boatloads of money and the right technology involved, we'd do a deal, sure," Ms. Bartz said at the All Things Digital conference. "It's that simple." Ms. Bartz also said Yahoo was interested in acquiring social-networking and video start-ups, … [Read more...]

Yahoo's Chief Technology Officer, Ari Balogh who is also the Vice President of products at Yahoo, told Reuters yesterday, that Yahoo is looking to buy companies that will allow it to become a bigger player in social networking and revamp its family of products, . "It's a good time to be buying now," pointing to valuations that have come down from levels six to nine months ago. Balogh , said … [Read more...]