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Yahoo's Castle Becoming A Cage? Posted: 13 Mar 2008 06:14 PM CDT Company's delays invite disaster n the olden days, armies often didn't attack castles so much as sit around them; weeks or months later, the defenders would run out of food and their leaders would have few options other than to surrender.  Yahoo may be placing itself in a similar situation in its fight against Microsoft. Yahoo has stalled, stalled, and then stalled some more.  From its initial 57-word acknowledgement of Microsoft's offer to changed bylaws concerning the board of directors, the company has moved slowly and pushed back deadlines at every turn. Now, the end of the first quarter is in sight.  If Yahoo's finances aren't in great shape, Henry Blodget anticipated the following scenario: "Microsoft . . . just after Yahoo reports a horrendous first quarter, pulls its offer for the company.  Yahoo's stock collapses, costing shareholders 40% overnight.  Jerry & Co. are pummeled with shareholder complaints and lawsuits, and Yahoo's employee and shareholder morale hit all-time low." Blodget continued, "Then, just when all hope seems lost, Microsoft comes charging back and saves the day with a $25 bid, and Yahoo owners flatten Jerry & Co. in a stampede to tender their shares." Saves the day, or, as it were, takes over the castle, with whoever's left inside happy to see someone who will feed them. We know this isn't a perfect analogy; people inside besieged castles, whether they were soldiers or civilians, frequently wound up getting killed.  But Jerry Yang had better hope Yahoo has a good first quarter, because the castles' lords were almost always executed. Source- WPN

New York Times Company Could Sell Assets Posted: 13 Mar 2008 06:14 PM CDT Executives at the New York Times Company aren't yet stocking up on "For Sale" signs.  Still, for the right price, it's starting to seem like they're willing to part with any property other than the similarly named newspaper. What's that list of properties include?  The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, About.com, and (surprise!) a stake in the Boston Red Sox, for starters.  "We are not married to any one asset, other than the New York Times newspaper," admitted CFO James Follo, according to Reuters. Newspapers of every size are having a tough time, of course, so an asset sale could help keep the New York Times Company profitable (and/or afloat).  Follo did continue, however, "We're not going to do a deal until the valuation is right." CEO Janet Robinson also appeared less than enthusiastic about the prospect of any transactions.  She even pointed out that now isn't a great time to unload assets; money doesn't flow too freely in our current economy. We'll see what happens, then.  But, even if raising cash wasn't a concern, we believe the New York Times Company would make a lot of people happy by separating itself from the Boston Red Sox.

The Online Mistakes Of The Music Business Posted: 13 Mar 2008 06:13 PM CDT Bad decisions lead to lost revenues In the April issue of Blender, they take a look at the "20 biggest record company screw-ups of all time." Topping the list is the major record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for rejecting a billion dollar settlement from Napster and not finding a way to make money off file sharing services. The report says, "The labels' campaign to stop their music from being acquired for free across the Internet has been like trying to cork a hurricane-upward of a billion files are swapped every month on peer-to-peer networks. Since Napster closed, 'there's been no decline in the rate of online piracy,' says Eric Garland of media analysts BigChampagne. The much-loathed RIAA appears again at number five for suing single mother of two Jammie Thomas for using the P2P service Kazaa to illegally share MP3 files of 24 songs. Last October she was found guilty and ordered to pay $222,000 in fines which equals $9,250 per song. Thomas is planning to appeal. Coming in at the number nine spot is Sony BMG for putting copy-protection software on CDs, which installed a "rootkit" on users computers along with not allowing people to make more than three copies of legally purchased CDs and making them vulnerable to viruses. The Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory and Sony recalled 4 million CDs. The label was accused of spying on its customer's listening habits and ordered to pay several million dollars to settle class-action lawsuits that alleged violations of spyware laws. Landing at number 19 is the recording industry's decision to abandon the single format and force people to buy entire albums. "Greed to force consumers to buy an album [resulted] in the loss of an entire generation of record consumers," says Billboard charts expert Joel Whitburn. "People who could only afford to buy their favorite hit of the week were told it wasn't available as a single. Instead, they stopped going to record shops and turned their attention to illegally downloading songs."

IIM-C student gets a $340,000 global job Posted: 13 Mar 2008 06:13 PM CDT The highest international offer of $3,40,000 (Rs 1.36 crore) during final placements on the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta campus this year has come from an international investment bank. The highest domestic salary has been in the range of Rs 65 to Rs 70 lakh per annum. IIM Calcutta (IIM-C) had beaten IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) last year in terms of the highest international offer made. IIM-C bagged an offer of $2,50,000, whereas IIM-A got an offer of $2,25,000. But this year, IIM-A leads the pack with an offer of $3,60,000 (Rs 1.44 crore) made to one of its students by a financial conglomerate. At IIM-C, the average domestic salary was Rs 16.4 lakh per annum. A total of 243 offers were made to the students before the beginning of final placements. This included 153 offers made during the laterals process and 90 pre-placement offers (PPOs) that were awarded for excellent performance during the summer internship. While India still remained a preferred destination for a majority of the students, some students also accepted assignments in the UK, US and the Asia Pacific region. Around 34 per cent of the batch members opted for jobs in the financial sector. Some of the companies which hired students included Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS, ING, JP Morgan and Barclays. Slot Zero investment banks made 32 i-bank offers to the students. A total of 26 per cent of the students preferred consulting companies. As many as 42 offers were made by the Slot Zero consulting firms on campus. Major consulting groups such as Mckinsey, Bain, BCG, AT Kearney and AD Little hired in good numbers. Around 22 new companies came to campus this year. These included O3 Capital, Dawnaday, Ocean Oil, Lodha Group, Anand Rathi and Opera Solutions. The campus also saw the participation of marketing giants such as P&G and HUL. Other marketing companies, including Nokia, ITC, Nestle and Asian Paints, hired in good numbers. The class of 2008 at IIM-C will be the first to send students to companies such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and AD Little. BIG DEAL # The highest domestic salary has been in the range of Rs 65 to Rs 70 lakh per annum # A total of 243 offers were made to the students before the beginning of final placements # A total of 26 per cent of the students preferred consulting companies           Source- Business Standard