Former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller seeks money to buy Yahoo: WSJ

[NOBama]

Shares of search engine Yahoo Inc. (YHOO: News ) rose 7% on Tuesday's regular trading after the Wall Street Journal reported that Jonathan Miller, former Chairman and chief executive of AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc. (TWX: News ), is talking to investors about raising money to buy all or a part of Yahoo.

According to the report, Miller, who headed AOL from 2002 to 2006, has been in talks for months with private-equity investors and sovereign-wealth funds, and the move accentuates the investor interest in the troubled Internet giant.

Citing people familiar with the matter, WSJ noted that Miller is mulling a deal that would be worth about $20 to $22 a share and which would require $28 billion to $30 billion in funding to buy the entire company.

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[NOBama]

Microsoft, in its continuing push to compete in the critical area of Internet search, tapped on Thursday a former senior Yahoo executive, Qi Lu, to head its online services group.

The software giant, which tried and failed to buy Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) earlier this year, is looking to revamp its online search strategy to better compete with the industry juggernaut, Google.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) said recently it does not want to buy Yahoo any more, although it has left open the possibility of a search deal with the company. Lu, who was responsible for development of the Web search and monetization platforms at Yahoo, left the company in August after 10 years.

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Might Miller's plans give MSFT incentive to make it's move?

 

[KittenKoder]

This is laughable ... MS will never be able to work into the search engine market, if they did they would make too many mistakes and probably crash their own company for it, look how miserably MSN fell as a search engine. While Time Warner may be able to buy Yahoo ... I doubt they will sell.

 

[DavidS]

Google should buy Yahoo and do what Microsoft did in the 1990s - buy out all of its competition.

 

[KittenKoder]

Google should buy Yahoo and do what Microsoft did in the 1990s - buy out all of its competition.

LOL ... too bad they are not that competitive, they could easily do it if they wanted now.

 

[NOBama]

This is laughable ... MS will never be able to work into the search engine market, if they did they would make too many mistakes and probably crash their own company for it, look how miserably MSN fell as a search engine. While Time Warner may be able to buy Yahoo ... I doubt they will sell.

I have no love for MSFT and I don't particularly care if they are successful with the acquisition, if they buy it. My only attraction to the story is that Yahoo's stock will pop, if they do.

 

[usmbtech]

Who's a buyer of yahoo in the $10 range?

 

[usmbtech]

$10.62 to 0 $11.62 so far today, what a jump!

 

[DavidS]

$10.62 to 0 $11.62 so far today, what a jump!

$11.59 right now... I remember the days when Yahoo was around $100/share.