Yahoo-Microsoft Deal Off?

Well it looks like Yahoo rejected the deal. Here is what the board said.

Quoting sources familiar with the situation, the Journal reports that Yahoo’s board feels the offer of $31 per share “massively undervalues” the company. A letter spelling out the position is expected to be sent Monday. Yahoo also expressed concern that Microsoft’s offer does not account for risks to Yahoo should the deal be overturned by regulators.

The Journal source said the company would be unwilling to consider an offer below $40 per share, which would represent a $12 billion increase over Microsoft’s original $44.6 billion bid. It is unclear if Microsoft would be willing to increase its bid by such a significant amount.

So I thought, ok let’s look at the numbers and see what they say from a valuation perspective.

Market Commentary: Should You Buy?

The indices in Europe, and America are down around 4 to 5%, and the question is if we hit bottom. First let’s look at the overall picture for the past year.

20080208Market01

Happy As A Hippo Has Begun

Throughout the years I have invested and worked for financial institutions. On the weekend I had a long talk with my wife on my future direction. The future is as follows: Long Term Goal: Become a fund manager of my own fund. This goal is a long term goal because I need to become fully (more…)

My Google Earnings Prediction: Miss

Google will miss expected earnings numbers tomorrow (IMO). There are two recent “shoot your own foot” actions from Google that may affect their short term performance. Overall, I agree with the changes, but I wouldn’t be swinging into earnings tomorrow.

(1) Google changed the “hit area” of their AdSense ads. Before the entire ad area was clickable. Now just the heading and url are.

There are mixed reports on whether or not this is affecting overall click through rates (CTR) and earnings. On InvestorGeeks, our CTR went from 2-2.25% in September and October to 1.25-1.5% in December and January. Our overall earnings are down 40%.

Most of Google’s revenue comes from their own search page which likely had smaller drops (if at all). But if other sites have had slowdowns like we have, this would eat into Googles earnings growth.

In the long run I think this is a good move, as it will cut down on fraud… eventually leading to more advertisers and higher ad rates. In the shot term, however, folks are taking a hit.

(read on for reason #2)

2007 Giving

I just wanted to do a nice recap of the donations we made on behalf of InvestorGeeks in 2007. All totaled, we gave a tad over $2000 in 2007. We’re looking to nearly double that in 2008… as long as our traffic and advertising relationships hold up. 2007 InvestorGeeks Donations – $400 to The Arthritis (more…)

In One Action The Fed Lost It!

In a previous blog entry I commented on how the Fed reacted to an event that might have been a non-event. I commented in that blog entry on how the recent market drop was probably due to the unwinding of a rogue trader at a French bank. It seems that the 7.9 billion of futures was sold by the bank at the beginning of this week causing a massive market upheaval.

Have We Hit Bottom?

Well according to Jim Cramer, yes. I say probably no. Or let me rephrase it, a temporary bottom. I want to show you my indicator for a major index that goes back to the second world war.

A Perfect Storm is Brewing!

As Rick Santelli said the market has Bernanke on the ropes and Bernanke does what the market wants. Well, now the USD has strengthened against the EURO people are starting to strong arm the ECB. Quotes are, “The ECB is behind the curve.”

Well traders, investors, hedge funds get ready for a rude awaking. And more importantly if the market believes they can strong arm the market then we have a perfect storm and it will be bad for the financial sector in America. This is why I am not touching the American financial sector with a ten foot pole.