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Microsoft Makes $44.6 Billion Offer to Buy Yahoo
Microsoft has made a surprise $44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo at $31 per share share.Yahoo issued a statement saying they would consider the offer. Yahoo said that its board will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly, in the context of Yahoos strategic plans, and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said they could help Yahoo compete: We have great respect for Yahoo, and together, we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers, and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online-services market,Yahoo recently laid off over 1,000 employees. They are a great company with numerous online products including several recently purchased social media sites like Blo.gs and del.icio.us. They also have a significant media side with original content and acquisitions like Rivals.com. It will be interesting to see whether Microsoft can convince Yahoo shareolders that this is the best option for them or whether Yahoo shareholders believe the company can do better by staying independent.Yahoos shares YHOO are up over 44% on news of the deal reports Marketwatch.Google shares are down significantly on the news because of concerns that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger could threaten Googles search and online advertising dominance.Microsoft views Yahoo as its best chance to thwart Google, which has leveraged its leadership in Internet search and advertising to emerge as an increasingly serious threat to the worlds largest software makers persuasive influence on how people interact with computers.Google already controls nearly 60 percent of the U.S. search market, and has been widening its lead, despite concerted efforts by both second-place Yahoo and third-place Microsoft. By combining, Microsoft and Yahoo would have a 33 percent share of the U.S. search market, according to the latest data from comScore Media Metrix.By joining forces, Microsoft and Yahoo also would widen their narrowing advantage over Google in providing free e-mail accounts -- a service that helps foster more loyalty with users and create more advertising opportunities.Google shares GOOG are down 9% on the news in early trading today.Permalink | Recent Headlines | WWFeeds.comAdvertisement:Find flowers, greeting cards, candy, gift ideas and morein ShoppersShop.coms Valentines Day Shopping section.

Super Tuesday is Terrible Tuesday for Stock Market
The American public is busy trying to figure out what all these polls mean about who is going to be their partys candidate. Meanwhile, Super Tuesday has turned out to be Terrible Tuesday for the stock market. Todays news that service sector shrank sent stocks in the wrong direction.The volatility that pummeled stocks in January returned with the news that the service sector shrank last month for the first time since March 2003. The report from the Institute for Supply Management wiped out the nascent optimism about the economy that had sent stocks surging higher last week.The report drives a nail into the coffin from investors minds that were in a recession, said Todd Salamone, director of trading at Schaeffers Investment Research. That doesnt mean stock prices in the months ahead will be lower. But when you see headline numbers like this, there tends to be a reactionary sell.The ISM said its index of service sector activity, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy, dropped below 50, a level that indicates contraction. Economists had expected another month of growth.Its possible the service sector, which includes businesses ranging from restaurants to retailers to banks, could bounce back in February as the manufacturing sector did in January after its December contraction. The benefit of the Federal Reserves two big interest rate cuts in the latter part of January could also help spur the service sector back into growth mode later this year.Marketwatchs entry says the data today is pointing toward a recession.Todays awful numbers:Dow down 370.03 2.93% - biggest one-day point drop for Dow since it dropped 387 points on Aug. 9, 2007.Nasdaq lost 73.28 3.08%Standard and Poors 500 lost 44.18 3.20%Permalink | Recent Headlines | WWFeeds.com

Miserable Opening Bell?
The New York Times reports that the stock market plunge in Asia and Europe continued into Tuesday. Stocks are falling due to concerns that the U.S. economy is headed for a recession. MarketWatch has a roundup of the two day losses.Shanghai two days: -12%Japans Nikkei 225 two days: - 10.2%Hang Seng two days: -13.7%U.K. FTSE 100 two days: -8.6%German DAX 30 two days: -12.4%This sell off could extend to U.S. stocks today.Amid fears that the United States may be in a recession, the decline in stock markets accelerated this morning as exchanges opened across Asia.Markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney all fell farther in the opening hours of trading today than they had all day Monday. Until now, overseas markets had largely avoided the sell-off that has caused steep declines recently in the United States, whose markets were closed Monday in observance of Martin Luther Kings Birthday. But investors reacted with what many analysts described as panic to the multiplying signs of weakness in the U.S. economy.And in a sign that the United States could join the sell-off today, trading in U.S. stock futures Monday suggested that the Dow Jones industrial average would fall more than 500 points at the opening bell.Marketwatch also says that the DJIA futures are currently down 650 points which could result in a miserable and nervous day of stock trading today.Permalink | Recent Headlines | WWFeeds.com

Mercantile Bank Corporation Announces First Quarter Provision ... - FOXBusiness
Mercantile Bank Corporation Announces First Quarter Provision ...FOXBusiness - 40 minutes agoGRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Mar 28, 2008 PrimeNewswire via COMTEX -- At a meeting held March 27, 2008, the Board of Directors of Mercantile Bank Corporation Nasdaq:MBWM determined that deteriorating economic conditions and real estate valuations have had ...Mercantile Bank expects 1Q provision BusinessWeekUPDATE 1-Mercantile Bank to post Q1 loss on increased provision ReutersForbes - MLive.com - Trading Markets press release - Business Wire press releaseall 21 news articles

UPDATE: Proxy Battle Begins At Office Depot - CNNMoney.com
UPDATE: Proxy Battle Begins At Office DepotCNNMoney.com - 1 hour agoA proxy battle at Office Depot Inc. ODP was officially launched Friday when a shareholder group filed its materials seeking its two nominees to replace the company's current and former chairman from the board.Office Depot shareholder files proxy Bizjournals.comOffice Depot holder group files proxy statement ReutersFOXBusiness - Trading Markets press release - SunHerald.comall 13 news articles

Lehman to sue over Japan fraud BBC News
Boston GlobeLehman to sue over Japan 'fraud'BBC News - 7 hours agoLehman Brothers, one of America's largest investment banks, plans to sue a Japanese trading house, saying it has been the victim of a complex fraud.Lehman to Sue Japan's Marubeni, Claiming Loan Fraud Update1 BloombergMarubeni employees' scam hit Lehman, others: sources ReutersInternational Herald Tribune - RTT News - BloggingStocks - Canada Eastall 231 news articles

Oil Hits $89 a Barrel
Those forecasts for oil to hit $100 a barrel arent sounding very funny anymore. Oil closed voer $89 a barrel today because of concerns in the Middle East. Turkey has approved the entry of its troops into Iraq which greatly escalate problems in what is already a troubled region. CNN reports that gas prices are just starting to feel the impact from the soaring oil prices. The AAA has gas prices up 4 cents already for the week.Earlier in the day, crude prices scrambled to an all-time trading high of $89.55 a barrel.Prices at the pump have been slow to respond to rising crude prices recently, but that may be changing. On Thursday, gas prices gained nearly 2 cents to a national average of $2.79 a gallon for regular-grade gasoline, according to AAA. They are up 4 cents since Monday.Prices at the pump have been slow to respond to rising crude prices recently, but that may be changing. On Thursday, gas prices gained nearly 2 cents to a national average of $2.79 a gallon for regular-grade gasoline, according to AAA. They are up 4 cents since Monday.Theres almost an inevitability here now that we are going to get to $100 a barrel, said John Kilduff, an energy analyst at Man Financial in New York.Helping to lift crude prices higher was a decline in the dollar, which fell to an all-time low versus the euro and also dipped versus the yenOil closed at $89.47 a barrel. You can track energy prices here on Bloomberg.com. This graph shows how rapidly oil prices have been climbing in 2007.Permalink | Recent Headlines | WWFeeds.com

JC Penney Plunges After Cutting Profit Forecast (Update1) - Bloomberg
CNBCJC Penney Plunges After Cutting Profit Forecast Update1Bloomberg - 1 hour agoBy Lauren Coleman-Lochner March 28 Bloomberg -- JC Penney Co., the third-largest US department-store chain, plunged the most in more than 20 years in New York trading after the retailer cut its sales and earnings forecasts on slower consumer spending ...JC Penney cuts first-quarter forecast MarketWatchJP Penney Slashes Guidance, Wall Street JournalReuters - CNNMoney.com - Conde Nast Portfolio - RTT Newsall 112 news articles

Stocks edge higher in early trading - USA Today
HispanicBusiness.comStocks edge higher in early tradingUSA Today - 58 minutes agoBy Tim Paradis, AP Business Writer NEW YORK - Stocks were moderately higher at Friday's open after a government report confirmed that personal spending fell in February to its weakest level in 17 months but that personal income came in stronger than ...US Stocks Head for Higher Open Washington PostStocks higher in early trading as personal spending shows weakness ... International Herald TribuneForbes - The Associated Press - RTT News - Fox 28all 694 news articles

How High Will Google Go?
Google, which trades on the Nasdaq as GOOG, is getting close to the $600 mark. The stock has been on an incredible ride since it started trading at $85 in 2004.Google, which began trading at $85 in 2004, has the sixth- highest stock price in the U.S. and has surged 27 percent this year. The shares rose $1.84 to $584.39 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market and earlier reached $596.81.The search engine has taken users from Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp., pushing sales growth to at least 70 percent in each of the past three years. Google plans to lure more Web surfers and advertisers through the YouTube video site, bought last year, and has introduced software to sell mobile ads.Google is still dominating, Piper Jaffray & Co. Web analysts including Gene Munster said in an Oct. 1 report.Munster, in Minneapolis, rates the stock outperform and estimates it will reach $660 within a year as Google parlays its lead in search into other areas of online advertising next year.Google may very well break the $600 mark and even $650 but how much upside can be left for this powerful technology firm? Henry Blodget has suggested GOOG could trade as high as $2,000Remember a couple years back when some analyst floated the idea that Google could eventually be worth $2,000 a share--and was ridiculed from coast to coast? Well, first its worth noting that Google is now almost a third of the way there. Second, its worth noting that $2,000 a share would mean a market cap of about $750 billion, which--given a reasonable time horizon--just isnt that far-fetched.Why? First, from a macro level, in every technology wave, the market leader usually ends up amassing more power, wealth, and market capitalization than the leaders in the prior wave, often by a startling magnitude. The leaders in the last technology wave included Microsoft and Cisco, both of which peaked around $500 billion in market capitalization...Blodgets remark has stirred up controversy among tech and financial bloggers - see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. You can check the latest GOOG quote here on Yahoo Finance.Permalink | Recent Headlines | WWFeeds.comAd: Singers Sing is a music news blog.Feed: Bloglines | Google | Netvibes | Other Readers