Recently in Yahoo Category

I'm seeing a lot of news in our space but not enough time to cover it all or analyze it, so here's just the headlines:

DPI (deep packet inspection) by cable being investigated by Congress. It scares the crap out of Boucher (ARS). Cox, Comcast, NebuAd  = new privacy law being debated (NYTimes).

Broadband download caps: in the news all week because apparently TWC said that without caps, they won't upgrade any more. Well, I have news for them: if they don't upgrade they will lose customers. Can you say FiOS, WiMAX, U-Verse, and now Wildblue is testing 18MB service.  ARS notes there are caps even when not explicit like TWC.  VZW and others have usage limits built into the acceptable usage policy.

Clearwire is being sued - class action status - for ETF (early termination fees) and network quality issues (can you say: false advertising on network performance?). (see here and my twitter pal @morisy).

And speaking of Caps (no, not hockey, how about Comcast battling it out with the former FCC chief's ruling that cable companies can only have a maximum of 30% of the entire market? If we applied that to telecom - and why shouldn't we? - we would have to break up Ma and Pa Bell (Verizon and AT&T). Please note: I am all for that.  Meanwhile Comcast's defense is Freedom of Speech.

Lastly, Facebook exec becomes new CEO at MySpace. Too little, too late? And Yahoo! is closing down GeoCities free hosting services, which it bought in 1999 for $3.5B. The analysis of the deal is on Fred Wilson's blog. Worthwhile read for start-ups about what VC deals look like.

According to an article on Y! news, Sprint may be trying to sell Nextel, but not without hurdles. "Sprint faces pressure from the FCC to relinquish a key chunk of iDen wireless airwaves for emergency communications networks." To me that means, spin it off as a public-private safety network.

Although analysts suggest that Motorola has left the iDen technology behind, NII uses the iDen network in Latin America. There is enough of a subscriber base to look at investing in improving that technology. To do a forklift upgrade to the iDen network would be expensive -- it means replacing all radios and handsets. I don't know how much upgrading you can do on that spectrum though, especially when Nextel is losing some of that spectrum in the US. That's why a nationwide safety network makes more sense.

"Sprint included a letter to Keith Cowan, an executive in charge of strategy and development, offering him a $1 million bonus for "the strategic resolution of the iDen network."" - Nice bonus! Hey, Keith, call me!

Well, it looks like I will get to see a real live proxy fight up close. (Well, as close as the web will get me.) Carl Icahn has sent a letter to the Yahoo! Board about this actions and disappointment. Icahn has already bought 59M shares of Y! stock and wants to buy $2.5B -- then sell it to Microsoft for a quick buck.

Icahn is busy messing around with Motorola. He owns most of the debt at XO -- and won't allow a re-finance which would actually help XO. I understand that he is a Corporate Raider looking to make big buck as fast as possible, but how about helping America out, Carl? By screwing every company you touch, you aren't helping anyone but yourself.

Your kind has not helped the economy one bit. Have you ever actually built anything? Or do you just use companies as Arbitrage pawns for your hedge fund games?

At Wikipedia, these are the companies that Icahn has a hand in: "He has taken substantial or controlling positions in various corporations including: RJR Nabisco, TWA, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum, Western Union, Gulf & Western, Viacom, Uniroyal, Dan River, Marshall Field, E-II (Culligan and Samsonite), American Can, USX, Marvel Comics, Revlon, Imclone, Federal-Mogul, Fairmont Hotels, Kerr-McGee, Time Warner and Motorola." How many of those companies are doing well or still exist?

Icahn actually states that Microsoft could do more with Yahoo: "I and many of your shareholders strongly believe that a combination between Yahoo and Microsoft would form a dynamic company and more importantly would be a force strong enough to compete with Google on the Internet." Ha! Microsoft search, Ask.com, Infoseek, AltaVista, et al have all tried to make a dent, but most couldn't even make a dent in Yahoo let alone Google.

One reason: Google is simple and clean. Y! and MSN are cluttered portals with screaming ads. Another reason: Google is a verb. Yahoo never reached that status even when they were buying big media advertising.

Icahn's proposed board is a collection of pirates that have never run anything more than hedge funds. The exception is Mark Cuban, who made his fortune selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo before the bubble burst -- or Cuban would just be a footnote in history. So basically the new board will come in, buy up stock, sell it to MS at a premium, bank the mullah, and then watch Y! disappear. Sad.