Microsoft, Yahoo! Resume Talks

May 18, 2008

Microsoft said Sunday that it is considering doing an unspecified deal with Yahoo!, but it's not seeking another acquisition of the Internet portal--at least for now.

The Redmond software giant has "raised with Yahoo an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo!," Microsoft said in a statement.
Microsoft declined to provide details of its proposed deal with the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Web portal, but the transaction likely involves Yahoo!'s search advertising business. The deal could be structured two ways: as an acquisition of that business or a partnership in which Yahoo! outsources its search ads to Microsoft. Yahoo! has also been in discussions with Google about such an outsourcing partnership.

Yahoo! said in a statement that it had responded to Microsoft's latest overture by telling the software giant that it's not interested in being acquired at this time, but it's "open to pursuing any transaction which is in the best interest of our stockholders."

When it launched its $40 billion-plus bid for Yahoo! on Jan. 31, Microsoft said it needed to combine forces with the Web portal to become a more significant player in online advertising. Google leads the sector and Yahoo! and Microsoft are distant No. 2 and 3 players, respectively.
Even though Microsoft said Sunday it isn't trying to acquire all of Yahoo!, it noted that it "reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo! or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft or with third parties."

On May 15, two weeks after Microsoft dropped its bid for Yahoo!, corporate raider Carl Icahn took steps to unseat Yahoo!'s board members in an effort to get Yahoo! and Microsoft back to the negotiating table. Icahn proposed a 10-member proxy board slate that includes himself, billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Frank Biondi, former chief executive of Viacom.

Microsoft's Sunday announcement comes two days before an advertising conference it's hosting in Redmond.

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source:forbes.com

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Is Microsoft stalking Powerset's search technology?

May 11, 2008

While Powerset is preparing for the public rollout of its unique, semantic search engine, Microsoft may be interested in acquiring the start-up, according to sources.

I asked Barney Pell, Powerset co-founder and CTO, whether there was any truth to a Microsoft Powerset deal rumors. He said, "No comment," and noted his policy of not commenting on rumors. Microsoft also declined to comment on rumors.

Bringing Powerset, which has no revenue and a tiny user base at this point, into the fold would be spare change for Microsoft compared with spending $45 billion to $50 billion on Yahoo. But, it could bring something useful to Microsoft--and Yahoo, if their union were consummated--in the battle for search users with arch rival Google.

Powerset raises the bar on search based on a preview that I had of the service last month. Powerset differs from the Google in that it extracts and indexes concepts, relationships, and meaning, rather than keywords. It's able to create connections and pivot in some cases in ways that elude Google's proficient engine, which favors more of a statistical approach.

Powerset uses a sophisticated natural language parser (licensed from Xerox PARC) to find subjects, verbs, objects, synonyms, and other elements for indexing.

Initially, Powerset is performing its magic on the 3 million pages of Wikipedia content, enabling a new kind of search and navigation experience on the popular information resource.
A next step would be to index the Web, which would be of great interest to Google rivals. Powerset has garnered $12.5 million in Series A funding from Foundation Capital, Founders Fund, and angel investors. Given the cost to scale up a semantically rich index of 20 billion Web pages, Microsoft would be a good match for Powerset. Then again, so would Google.

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source:news.com

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Tips for Creating a Letterhead Template in Microsoft Word

May 4, 2008

If you're running a business, there's no substitute for professionally created stationery with your company's logo and other information in the letterhead. You need to communicate to your clients and customers that your organization is legitimate, and a knockoff letterhead with a generic graphic is a dead giveaway of a low-budget operation.

At the same time, you may have occasion to create a one-off letterhead for a special event or side project that doesn't require anything fancy, and that you don't want to spend a lot of time or money to generate. Microsoft Word lets you fashion such a letterhead in just a few minutes. Keep in mind that this is a quick-and-dirty way to give your documents a unique appearance, and no substitute for a stationer's wares.

The no-muss, no-fuss letterhead template

Start by opening a new blank document in Word and saving it as a template, using the .dot extension for Word 2003, or the .dotx extension for Word 2007. Give the new template a unique name, such as "quickletterhead1.dotx", and save it in your templates folder so it will be available when you create another document from a template.

In Word 2007, click Insert > Header > Blank, and in Word 2003, click View > Header and Footer. In both versions, enter your preferred letterhead text (organization name, address, phone, e-mail, etc.), and then click Insert > Picture (> From File in Word 2003). Navigate to and select the image you want to embed in the letterhead. (If you're using a large image, open and resize the picture in Paint or another image editor before you add it to your letterhead, or choose one of the appropriately sized clip-art images built into Windows.) Right-click the image and choose Format Picture.

Use the options in the Format Picture dialog box to add a drop shadow to the image, resize it, or make other changes. When the image looks the way you like it, click the Layout tab in Word 2003 and choose a wrapping style other than the default "In line with text." Click OK in Word 2003, or Close in Word 2007.


Now use your mouse to drag the image to the position you prefer in the header. You can use the controls along the image's edge to resize it manually, or drag the little green circle at the top to rotate the picture. When you're happy with the image's size and position, click Close on the Header and Footer toolbar in Word 2003, or click anywhere outside the header in Word 2007 to see how your letterhead will look.


When you want to create a document using your custom letterhead, click File > New in Word 2003, or choose the Office button and click New in Word 2007. Choose "On my computer" under Templates in the New Documents pane of Word 2003, select it from the list that appears under the General tab of the Templates dialog box, and click OK. In Word 2007, select your letterhead template under Recently Used Templates, or if it's not listed there, click "New from existing" in the top-left pane, navigate to the template you just created, and click Open.

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