More Videos
- My Top 10 Tech Toys for the Holidays
- iPhone a Better Gaming Platform Than Android?
- Dell Has Some Explaining to Do
- Dell May Start to Show Some Promise
- Has Twitter's Finest Hours (Seconds) Come and Gone?
- Intel's Andy Bryant Offers An Explanation
- Apple's Global Retail Invasion
- Intel Settles; AMD Settles the Score
- HP's Shot Across Cisco's Bow
- Back Off, Regulators!
- How Stock Investors Can Play Holiday Travel
- Time Lapse World Series Is A Great Play
- Hirschhorn: Greed...or Fear
- My Top 10 Tech Toys for the Holidays
- iPhone a Better Gaming Platform Than Android?
- May Day For Dendreon
- 100% Mortgage Financing From USDA
- Holiday Tipping: Who And How Much
- Deep Discounts Should Make It a Very Tech-y Holiday
- The Richest Members of the US Congress
- New Consensus Sees Stimulus Package as Worthy Step
- Wall Street Jobs Slow to Return Despite Record Profits
- Thanksgiving Week Stuffed With Economic News
- Black Friday Deals May Not Signal Retail Comeback
- Investors to Goldman: Be Less Greedy
- UPS Sets New Rates For 2010
- Victoria's Secret Hopes to Rekindle Desire for Lingerie
- 'New Moon' Takes Record $72.7M Box Office Bite
RSS FEED
Tech Check
Text Size 
 |
CNBC.com |
] and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., [NWS
Loading...
()
] or even an outright competing bid to Microsoft's [MSFT
Loading...
()
] $44.6 billion hostile offer. Now there's word from our partners at the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, that discussions are underway--matching the kinds of discussions that have been making the rounds for the better part of a year; that an asset swap between News Corp. and Yahoo is on the table.
The latest speculation has News Corp. swapping its MySpace property to Yahoo, along with some News Corp. cash and cash from an unnamed private equity firm, all for a 20 percent stake in Yahoo. The deal would hinge, however, on MySpace attracting a valuation of between $6 billion and $10 billion. A stretch, to say the least.
Such a plan would let Yahoo keep its independence and give News Corp. enormous control over some of the web's top properties, but it's not clear that Yahoo shareholders would go for such a deal. That's because it would likely torpedo all the gains Yahoo shares have enjoyed since the Microsoft bid was made public.
And unless there's been a significant change of heart from his company's recent earnings conference call, this is Rupert Murdoch's most recent public comments on the topic, courtesy of reader Matthew Alvarez who just sent them to me:
"We are definitely not going to make a bid for Yahoo! We're not really interested at this stage," Murdoch said.
Sources I have spoken to say you can't blame Yahoo for trying to shop around for a better deal. It's just that an asset swap is likely not what weary investors were hoping to see. If you had $45 billion sitting on the table, or an asset swap that might or might not work out eventually, which would you rather see happen. Message to Yahoo: Bird in the hand.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes