AOL - Yahoo Merger NOT A Done Deal, Says Time Warner Source*

ah, i'll have to go out and visit the ol' dulles campus one more time before the cows reclaim it.

Yahoo + AOL = your mom's web

As long as they do it right (ruthless elimination of redundancy and complete integration), it's smart. Unfortunately, Yahoo has never demonstrated this competency before.

Jerry, what an a-hole. I cannot believe that this is happening.

I wonder how this deal effects the billion dollar 5% investment Google has in AOL.

Yahoo could buy it out or it could be exchanged for the same consideration Time Warner gets, which is presumably Yahoo stock.

You know now that I think about it, if Kevin Conroy and Bill Wilson are put in charge and the Yahoo team is taken out including Jerry and Sue it might be worth it, of course that will not happen.

Good deal in theory. What are the chances that they successfully execute this merger -- 2% at best?

Looks like Bebo will go down as the Broadcast.com of Web 2.0...

LOL....another merger debacle for AOL, I worked there when they made the Time Warner mistake....There is nothing worthwhile anymore as far as AOL is concerned, sans the AIM client. Well not there ever really was since the dial up days. The only people who use AOL on the web are people that work there, Granny who doesn't know any better...and a few others that are not Web savvy, no one else with any sense of the tech world would be caught dead on AOL.com, or using their client. AOL is like the client for Jerry's Kids...LOL....And I didn't even mean that to be a pun.

It's not a bad idea. Yhoo needs it way more than TWX. TWX share price is already way below where it should be. The share price does not include What AOL might be worth. I just hope if they do some type of merger Bewkes does not include cash. That would be a very stupid move, something Parsons would have done. Yhoo needs AOL way more and TWX should get yhe upper hand on this deal. MSFT will be out in the cold(internet) if the deal goes thru......................

has looked for the yahoo 18-wheeler outside of her building - but nothing sited as of yet.

To late for msft/goog to make a play?

@Jimmy - I don't think either company ever existed to cater to "Web savvy" users and "people with any sense of the tech world" as you mention. They are mass market companies with broad appeal that can realize significant cost savings by combining operations.

Yes, you are all correct BUT see the future--AOL Radio on iphone totally rocks!! Mobile will be big for a combined Yahoo AOL, things like AOL Radio on iPhone could be huge, plus their AIM/YahooIM on iphone will have voice and will be able to provide internet phone calls via data, hence no voice/phone charges as well. Both radio and voice over data lines on iphone are going to be big, and AOL/Yahoo is well positioned for both.

Apparently the 18-wheeler rumbled by earlier this morning. Could be crap... hoping someone will send us a picture. hblodget@alleyinsider.com

How trustworthy is your source Henry?

Henry-

I actually had a former co-worker say a few weeks ago that he had seen the 10-wheeler - not sure if it's back this week or not...

All I can think about is the ex-AOL people who went to Yahoo. "Just when I thought I was out...."

Oh Boy !! Hopefully YahoL(e) will give its employees decent serverence packages when the christmas firings ensue (and ensue they will).

:(

this rumor is almost as old as the web is.. won't believe it till i see it. always glad to see silicon valley insider rushing to scoop a story that hasn't happened

Now Yang will have another company that he can screw up; managerial incompetence being his specialty.

Senior Time Warner source now denies... Companies still in talks (30 years later) but says a deal is "not imminent". No word on the phantom 18-wheeler.

I checked outise the window as well. Nothing spoted yet. I doubt the credibility of this news source. My friend at Yahoo! corp dev did not confirm anything as well.

Why do you continue to try and break stories...your reputation is as credible as the weekly world news. It is not 1997 all over again. Not all of us have forgotten about your days at Merrill.

loving the live rewriting of this story! how many times is it going to change today henry?

You have to love the rumor-mill.

So sad. AOL will only make Yahoo fail, although I suppose if you're of the ripitoff school of bandaid management, Yahoo failing faster is a good thing. At least it ends the suffering with less pain.

I can't help but wonder where the Board is while all this is going on. Icahn? Bueller? Anyone? Oh, right, this board is the same one that kept Semel in too long, then gave the CEO slot to Jerry, blew up the Microsoft offer, and has left itself wide open for random lawsuits for failure in fundamental duties of care, fiduciary responsibility, etc.

Time to sit back and enjoy the show. Where's my popcorn?

Go ahead, fire away. Sorry about head fake.

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/06/05/yahoo-steps-up-its-data-center-investment/

Truck delivering servers in the October timeframe listed in the article.

"John Smith" and "Live rewrites" -
Nobody asked you to read this website. Stop bitching. Looks like your wives gave you a hard time last night. I know where you can get a 100% confirmed story: its called "The Washington Post". The paper version will cost you 50c so make sure you visit the ATM.

Henry is trying his best to break a BIG story. In this industry, there is no smoke without a fire.

Henry keep up the good work - we want to hear all the rumours and blow by blow account.

Why does SAI have a massive hardon for this deal to get done?

Well, I don't want them to do it if Yahoo overpays. But it would certainly be good for both companies to be out of the purgatory.

Your own execution could use a little work Henry.

The Yahoo 18-Wheeler is a mobile Billboard for its "Purple" ad campaign. They are in every major market. Back to WORK!!! ALL OF YEZ.

Saw that Yahoo semi-truck on 495 about 8 times over the last 6 months. Not really news, since trucks drive on roads these days.

Yes, sorry... Source usually rock solid.

Sorry I'm late to this story. Is the Yahoo!-AOL deal on or not?

This just in ... Steve Jobs did NOT have a heart attack. Sorry about the "head fake."

Exactly, just take this story down it's ridiculous. You have no editorial advantage here by posting something with no facts. We all know it would be incredibly exciting to talk about this if it were true or if your source was valid. But its not and you're just causing nonsense.

Henry just had to get his Yahoo-AOL fix in for the week. Even with consistently bad sources he is like a dog who chases cars who never quite gets it.

Henry, you probably should pull this down as there is nothing to suggest this is true. Its damaging to your reputation.

Things are business as usual down here in Dulles this afternoon.

Henry, thank you for making the case, yet again, against "citizen journalism" and for professional and responsible, multisourced journalism.

I see that Yahoo truck at 28 and Waxpool about once a month. Lots of datacenters in that area, so driving past AOL isn't that big of a deal.

Of course, it will make for a great visual, when/if the deal is done.

Once this merger happens which brilliant ad wizard will run Yahole; "Mr. I don't need MSFT" Jerry Yang or the monotone, boring, and not that bright Lynda Clarizio???

Hello. I am not sure about this article. My title is VP status and we have not been told to start packing our bags. From what I have been told is we are still talking things over. Many jobs are at stake.

"Henry take this down, its damaging to your reputation"

I dont think its possible to cause further damage is it?

This article is an embarassment.

Henry,

Re: The Yahoo 18-wheeler. That is a regular occurrence of the morning heading South on Route 28. I saw that thing on an almost weekly during my time at Dulles. It would usually run a little after 9am. Check your source...and email me when the boxes arrive.

If/when the merger/acquisition happens, just a little forwarning to AOL employees: I wouldn't bet the farm on a great severance package as in years past. The recent small layoff AOL had, the employees got 2 months.

The good news MIGHT be that you may still get your bonus. Last October's layoffs WERE bonus eligible. However, the small group let go in September of this year are not.

Big Papi, I think the opposite. There will be above-average packages because of 1) PR reasons (and because of WARN Act although not mandated, it does get a lot of media attention) and 2) it makes for a nice charge in the current year to make your subsequent year look more attractive (along with all the capex writeoffs because there will be asset synergies).

That's what I would do.

Here's some news for all you hardworking worker-bees at AOL:

All SVPs and EVPs at AOL have been given RETENTION packages. In case, you are not familiar - a Retention package offers additional bonus and incentives to stay with the company upto a certain date. For example, the AOL retention package may offer $30K cash bonus if the VP sticks with AOL until March 01, 2009.

Moral of the story:
The Execs have been given "bail out" packages. The worker-bees are being to told to "stay focussed" and keep working hard. AOL Management has been asked to keep the Retention package info "confidential".

John,

I think I agree more w/ Big Papi. The cost cutting in Dulles has been extreme in the last 4 months or so. Unless Yahoo grossly overpays, I would expect that trend to continue.

Big Papi, glad to see you're still well informed! How's the weather treating you down there? :)

Skip

John - I hope, for the sake of my former co-workers that I still keep in touch with, you are right. WARN is only 60 days, I hope they get more. I just want them to know that it could be as little as 60 days!

I wouldn't say a severance package is guaranteed. I know a guy that was offer a severance package by his SVP months ago only to have it pulled at the last minute as he was walking out the door. The severance package probably went to pay the SVP's retention bonus.

which company?

To burned: it was AOL

Both sites have a handful of actually decent editorial properties -- hopefully the wrong ones won't get weeded out.

Interesting example -- AOL's "other" video game site gamedaily.com, actually gets more traffic than the overrated (and more expensive to run) joystiq.com.

Wait! You mean this post hasn't been spammed yet with "buy dvd software"? Oh, the inhumanity. Henry, is there anything you can do about your non-stop daily spammer? He drives me nuts. I always check back later on posts I commented on to see if anyone replied, and more often than not it's just him with more "buy dvd software" garbage.

And people, step off HB's butt. He claims he had a bad source - not a big deal! If he takes the post down now it looks like he's hiding something and how does he have something to hide when his source was bad, not his own judgment? At least he was honest enough to admit it right there in the post, and to update with more facts as he got them - and yeah, the truck, right, so what, whatever.

I would think it's bad enough to *have* a bad source and to have to admit it without all of you piling on in the comment section about it, too - adding insult to injury.

yhoo and goog and just about anybody who is somebody has something hosted in the data centers at Waxpool and Loudoun co pkwy.

Henry, you've been putting out there that (if this deal happens) Yahoo shouldn't pay more than 3 x AOL's trailing qtr (annualized) ad revenues for the ad business (ex access), thus arriving at a figure of around $6B, but is this what you really mean? When it's clear that a very significant part, maybe even the majority part, of those ad bus. revenues still derive from dialup subscriber clicks? Don't you mean that in a sale excluding AOL's access business, Yahoo shouldn't pay more than 3 X the trailing revenues of the media business having first deducted revenues deriving from AOL's dialup subscribers...which might give you, at a guess, half your $6B figure? And then separately value the dial up business, if that's included in the sale....still arriving at way less than your "$8-10B as roughly reasonable' for the whole conclusion.

This is likely the point isn't it? Bewkes promised a while back he'd publish the breakout of the impact of dialup subscriber traffic on AOL's content business. Then he didn't. Miller, who'd know, was blocked from the Y board for some reason. This has always been the area where the microscope needs to be focused by a prospective AOL purchaser.

Rather than urging Yang not to pay more than $6B (ex access) you should be urging him to not pay more than a multiple of earnings for the ad bus after excluding dialup subscriber clicks from those earnings. The Y board need to first arrive in a position where they have thoroughly and diligently exposed and comprehended the value of AOL’s ad business, excluding the impact of dialup subscriber traffic on that ad business, & then pay a reasonable multiple for that in a transaction excluding access, and they need to separately expose that value first even in a transaction including access subscribers. If they don’t, and they overpay as a result, then they should be held accountable to Y shareholders.

We just had a meeting and can't belive all this crap. We all asked if we would have jobs and they didn't give us an answer! What the hell Jerry! Just cuz you are not as welcomed here anymore doesn't mean you can't send us a memo!

I drive trucks for yahoo and I wanted to let you know that I was driving past Dulles this morning with a delivery marked "YANG, THIS SIDE UP". I don't know what that means or anything but I think it might be servers or something.

that was me driving the truck with my chimp bear. We are going to roll through dulles this week.

Once again, Henry, you're wrong. Shocker! You should get a new source because he was wrong from the get-go and was proven so today. You'd be shocked and your head would probably spin if you really knew what was going on behind the scenes with all of this.

Totally irresponsible attempt at authentic journalism by a person permanently banned from the securities industry. I guess some never learn from their past mistakes?

You fueled speculation and created volatility while touting internet stocks back in the day and now you're doing it through this website. Same deplorable behavior, different venue.

Real journalists do not speculate and post innuendo in order to increase their web traffic and unique visitor count on their site. They report the real story while sticking to facts and the facts alone.

Something you clearly paid little to no attention on when authoring your alleged breaking story on a deal being done.

Henry. I cant stop to wonder if your source is real. Please understand me that news like this is not good. I our meetings with AOL have been going fair but I cant say we will have an answer this week. PLEASE keep in mind of all your bad PR does to hard working men and women who have families and can do with out the bad PR.

Yahoo

Skip - weather is fine, just wish I wasn't 1 for infinity against the Tampa Bay Rays!

Seriously, I can speak first hand - 2 months notice. Sorry gang.

What part of the Yahoo business do you work on & who is your SVP?

Hmm, Jerry Yang is remarkably still chief Yahoo despite the stock sliding towards single digits. What's that all about? Why does he not do the appropriate thing and resign his position?

As to AOL, I'm surprised they still exist. Well, at least I assume they do...

OK i give up - what is a Yahoo 18-wheeler? (and what would it want to carry away if a merger took place?)

Since I'm a long-time user of both AOL and Yahoo, I'm not at all sure I like hearing about a merger.
(These two companies have been extremely useful).
Jerry Gropp Architect AIA PS

Wrong move, when the market is so bad...... i have been in AOL when it was 200 billion company......... if yahoo has sense they should wait to get this gaint for even lesser prices... 10 billion is too much... but unless yahoo wants to buy out the real estate of AOL ;)

How AOL is going to help leveraging yahoo?

What is AOL doing any different from Yahoo

Waiting for Big Tuesday for Yahoo earnings...

AOL - Yahoo Merger NOT A Done Deal, Says Time Warner Source*642-825Who put you in charge! I diot.

AOL - Yahoo Merger NOT A Done Deal, Says Time Warner Source* 多效唑 You think too much. You're sick.

640-802 AOL - Yahoo Merger NOT A Done Deal, Says Time Warner Source* The worst is yet to come. How would I know!

The premier seller of jordans and buy air force ones and information on acne.