Buying Yahoo Is A No-Brainer For Alibaba

Alexia Tsotsis currently works for TechCrunch as a writer. She is also a blogger who attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. She majored in Writing and Art, moving to New York City shortly after graduation to work in the Entertainment/Media industry. After four years of living in New York City and attending courses at New York... ? Learn More

Today at the China 2.0 conference at Stanford, Alibaba Groups’s Jack Ma replied to a pointed question about buying Yahoo with, “We are very interested in Yahoo. Our Alibaba group is important to Yahoo and Yahoo is important to us … All the serious buyers interested in Yahoo have talked to us.”

Those “serious buyers” most likely include Alibaba Group investor Silver Lake Partners, Microsoft and Andreesen Horowitz, who have all reportedly reached out to Yahoo’s board.

Is Ma’s interest enough to spark consumer and shareholder interest in Yahoo? “Any and all interest [is] welcome,” one shareholder told me, “but Ma has real smarts.”

On the surface Ma is certainly the type of CEO that Yahoo needs post-Bartz, diplomatic, cunning, and a man of (relatively) few words. But would the deal make sense financially?

Alibaba Group’s recent funding from Silver Lake valued it at $32 billion, while Yahoo is at a 16 billion market cap. With Yahoo’s 40% stake in Alibaba Group valued at $12.8 billion, it seems like 80% of the company’s value is based on its Asian assets. Ma has apparently made it clear that he would like to buy back Yahoo’s stake in his own company, and now he can for a bargain basement $3 billion premium –with hundreds of millions of US users thrown in for good measure.

Is the rest of Yahoo worth $3 billion? Probably. Plus Ma has an additional incentive to buy Yahoo because getting all those shares back frees him from his largest albatross shareholder. It’s a no brainer for Alibaba.

Would the Yahoo board take an offer from Ma? That remains to be seen, as the relationship between the two companies has been notoriously strained, most recently suffering because of accusations of unfair play on the part of Yahoo when Ma transferred ownership of Alipay to a separate company.

The sentiment among the former Yahoo employees I spoke to seems to be that Yahoo is so dysfunctional that they can’t see anything like this happening. And then there’s stigma; the general idea is to sell to someone you’re proud of like Google and Microsoft, not someone you used to own. The cultural fit between the Chinese and American companies is also quite awkward, as Sarah Lacy has documented comprehensively.

Despite this, many shareholders are just hoping for a decent price to exit their long-held positions, and Ma might be the company’s only hope for survival intact, as he is interested in Yahoo in its entirety. This is surprising: Yahoo is the type of company that Richard Gere in Pretty Woman would buy, and then break up — the individual pieces are more valuable than the sum of the parts.

Related: Looking up that YHOO ticker on Yahoo Finance is just depressing.

Image: Mick Orlosky

IPO: December 4, 1996, Nasdaq:YHOO

Yahoo was founded in 1994 by Stanford Ph.D. students David Filo and Jerry Yang. It has since evolved into a major internet brand with search, content verticals, and other web services. Yahoo! Inc. (Yahoo!), incorporated in 1995, is a global Internet brand. To users, the Company provides owned and operated online properties and services (Yahoo! Properties, Offerings, or Owned and Operated sites). Yahoo! also extends its marketing platform and access to Internet users beyond Yahoo! Properties through its distribution network...

Learn more IPO: June 11, 2007, HKSE:1688.HK

Alibaba.com is a B2B e-commerce company. Alibaba’s primary business is to serve as a directory of Chinese manufacturers connecting them to other companies around the world looking for suppliers. According to iResearch, it was the largest online B2B company in China in 2006 based on the number of registered users and market share in China by revenue. Yahoo is currently a 40% share holder in the parent Alibaba Group. They operate two marketplaces; the first is an international marketplace based...

Learn more

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

HTC’s Eyes Wander, Considers Buying Their Own OS

Chris Velazco is a mobile enthusiast and writer who studied English and Marketing at Rutgers University. Once upon a time, he was the news intern for MobileCrunch, and in between posts, he worked in wireless sales at Best Buy. After graduating, he returned to the new TechCrunch to as a full-time mobile writer. He counts advertising, running, musical theater,... ? Learn More

HTC has produced devices running a handful of operating systems over the years, from big names like Android to lightweight options like Qualcomm’s BREW. What we’ve never seen though is a device that is HTC through and through — HTC hardware meets HTC OS.

The Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer seems to have been thinking the same thing, as company chairwoman Cher Wang has revealed that HTC is considering purchasing their own mobile operating system for use in forthcoming devices.

Though the company’s intentions have now been outed, Wang makes clear that their next steps are not set in stone. Taiwan’s Central News Agency has learned that HTC is taking the cautious approach here: while HTC brass have internally discussed their options, Wang makes it clear that their OS purchase (if it ever happens) is not going to be an impulse buy.

In spite of their commitment to taking their time, HTC seems a bit nonchalant about introducing a new operating system to their already-ambitious line up. It’s likely because they realized that whatever operating system they purchase is only going to be a template upon which the HTC experience will be built. “We can use any OS we want,” Wang said. “We are able to make things different from our rivals on the second or third layer of a platform.”

At least one of those layers refers to HTC’s near-ubiquitous Sense UI, which in one form or another has sat on top of numerous operating systems in recent years. That, coupled with the company’s new focus on delivering services like HTC Watch mean that no matter what OS they end up purchasing, the end result should be full-featured and recognizable. Whether or not it will be enough to claim any significant market share is still up in the air, but it’ll be a real treat to see them try.

Launch Date: September 12, 1997

HTC Corp, (TAIEX: 2498) produces smartphones running the Android and Windows Phone 7 operating systems for themselves and as an OEM to other manufacturers. Since launching its own brand in late 2006, the company has introduced dozens of HTC-branded products around the world. The company recently introduced the HTC diamond to compete with Apple’s iPhone. Founded in 1997 by Cher Wang, Chairwoman, and Peter Chou, President and CEO, HTC made its name as the company behind many of the...

Learn more

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Is Printing A Gun The Same As Buying A Gun?

Biggs is the editor of TechCrunch Gadgets. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. ? Learn More

There’s an interesting back-and-forth going on at Thingiverse, a site founded by Makerbot to share 3D projects. Two designers have made two parts for the AR-15 rifle platform. The first part is a standard rifle magazine complete with spring but the second part is AR-15 lower receiver.

Why are these parts important? Well, the magazine is just on the edge of Thinigverse’s implied (but not concrete) “no weapons” philosophy but the lower receiver is something else entirely. It is the only part of the AR-15 that you need a license to buy. Here’s what the creator, KingLudd, has to say about it:

The Lower Receiver is the frame that holds together all the other pieces of the firearm. In the States, all the other pieces can be purchased without a permit – over the counter or through the post. The Lower Receiver is the only part which requires a background check or any other kind of paperwork before purchase.

Typically this part is made of aluminium. A rifle with a Lower Receiver made of plastic can be perfectly functional.

Is it a weapon? Is it a part? Is it illegal or legal?

The question, in short, is at what point is a “part” a weapon? If you buy all of the other pieces in metal – pieces that were made in much the same way this piece was made – are you breaking the law by building your own, final piece. Is this akin to building your own dum-dum bullets or is it more like “unlocking” a deadly weapon with a what amounts to a copied key?

Bre Pettis, founder of Makerbot, said that he’s dealt with this before and that the answer is never clear-cut. “We’ve already been through a few flame wars around what a weapon is. Our take is that we’d rather you not upload weapons, but we’re not going to regulate it… unless it’s illegal. Which it isn’t.”

I find it fascinating that we’re even asking these questions at this point. The fact that we are now able to manufacture usable weapon parts is an important step in the evolution of fabrication and manufacture and, if I were a weapons giant, I’d start rethinking my sales strategies. When a company of rebels can print their own AK-47s (a concept that is still a ways off), whose fault is it? The person who made the plans? The fabricator? The company whose rifles they copied?

In the end, a thing is just a thing. After all, the same site that helps you build an AR-15 also lets you put a flower into the barrel of one.

via BB

MakerBot Industries is a Brooklyn based company that creates affordable, open source 3D printers.

Learn more

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Samsung: We’re Not Buying HP’s PC Business

Jordan Crook studied English Literature at New York University before entering the tech space. Prior to joining TechCrunch, Crook dabbled in mobile marketing and mobile apps as well as doing device reviews for MobileMarketer and MobileBurn. Crook is fascinated with alternative energy production and greentech. She is now a writer for CrunchGear. ? Learn More

Since HP made the announcement it would be spinning off its PC business, there have been questions over who would scoop it up. A number of different OEMs fit the bill and have the cash to take on HP’s Personal Systems Group, but one in particular seemed to be looking for an outsourcing partner before HP ever made its announcement.

Digitimes reported that Samsung had been in talks with Quanta, Compal and Pegatron to possibly outsource notebook orders, its sources including HP on the list of suitors as well. “The sources added that Samsung’s actions seem like it is already in preparation to take up Hewlett-Packard’s (HP’s) PC business,” wrote Digitimes. But Samsung begs to differ.

Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, but Samsung swears it’s malarkey. On the official Samsung blog, the company made the following statement: “The recent rumors that Samsung Electronics will be taking over Hewlett-Packard Co.’s personal computer business are not true. We hope this clarifies any confusion that may have occurred.”

Well, there you have it folks: A Samsung-HP love affair is not in the cards at the moment. Though it probably wouldn’t be a great fit, anyways. Samsung’s focus seems to be geared toward higher margin products like its $1,699 Series 9 notebook. Shipping 10 million HP notebooks just doesn’t quite fit into that equation.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Group Buying Site BuyWithMe Snags Patch.com EVP Away From AOL

Robin Wauters currently works as a staff writer for TechCrunch and lead editor of Virtualization.com. Aside from his professional blogging activities, he’s an entrepreneur, event organizer, occasional board adviser and angel investor but most importantly an all-round startup champion. Wauters lives and works in Belgium, a tiny country in Europe. He can often be found working from his home or... ? Learn More

Our parent company AOL is having a rough time making money from Patch, its rapidly expanding network of local news sites, and that’s not its only problem. Today, group buying website BuyWithMe announced that it has recruited Charlie Gray, formerly Executive Vice President at Patch, as its new ‘Chief People Officer’.

BuyWithMe, which rivals the likes of Groupon and LivingSocial in the United States, says Gray will help manage the company’s growth plans, and hire, train and retain talent throughout the country.

BuyWithMe is certainly aggressive when it comes to acquiring its way into new markets. This year, it has already completed five acquisitions scooping up New York deals site Scoop St., Chicago deals siteDealADayOnline, San Francisco deals site Swoop, loyalty company Edhance, and LocalTwist.

BuyWithMe launched in 2009 and now operates in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C.

At Patch, Gray scaled the growth from 100 employees in 30 locations to 1,400 employees in more than 800 locations in just one year, so the hire showcases BuyWithMe’s ambition for further expansion.

Previously, Gray served as Head of HR and Staffing for Google’s North American Advertising Sales department, where he oversaw all people-related functions for Google’s US and Canada sales and operations teams. He’s also worked for Ziff-Davis and RecycleBank in the past.

BuyWithMe is the premier group buying website where leading local merchants offer exclusive limited time offers to members of the BuyWithMe community. Through the power of its numbers,...

Learn more

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.