Yahoo Spurns Microsoft Buyout Offer

Yahoo’s board of directors yesterday rejected Microsoft’s buyout offer, saying the $44.6 billion deal “substantially undervalues” the veteran Internet company.

“After careful evaluation, the board believes that Microsoft’s proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments,” Yahoo said in a statement.

The rebuff had been widely anticipated after word of Yahoo’s intention was leaked during the weekend.

Yahoo’s stock price had dropped by more than 40 percent in the three months leading to Microsoft’s bid, which was valued at $31 per share when it was announced on Feb. 1. The offer represented was 62 percent above Yahoo’s market value at the time.

By rejecting Microsoft, Yahoo’s board appears to betting that it will be able to extract a higher offer from the world’s largest software maker or its management team will finally be able to deliver on its repeated promises of a turnaround that has been in the works for the past 18 months.

Many analysts believe Microsoft will eventually raise its bid to $35 to $40 per share, sweetening the pot by $5 billion (3.44 billion euros) to $12 billion (8.25 billion euros) in an effort to negotiate an amicable sale.

Alternatively, Microsoft could take its original bid directly to Yahoo’s shareholders. If it goes down that route, Microsoft might have to antagonize Yahoo by trying to oust the 10-member board that rejected the original offer.

Online Tutoring on Demand

In the Kingdom, many families depend on private tutors in maths and sciences to supplement school resources. Most tutors are scheduled for fixed sessions a few times each week. But what happens when there’s a homework problem or an exam crisis between tutoring sessions? What if a tutor can’t be found and mom and dad are trying to struggle with long forgotten school subjects added to schedules already bursting with responsibilities?

It may be time to take a look at 21st century resources in the form of an online tutor. In the past, online tutoring had to be scheduled and the tools used to teach over the Internet weren’t very sophisticated.

That has completely changed. Tutor.com is now offering online tutoring, on demand, with no schedules and no appointments — 24X7. Thousands of screened, qualified tutors are available to handle maths, sciences, social studies and English, using the latest multimedia learning tools.

A broadband connection is required to make the most of the service and it can be pricy — from $29.99 for 50 minutes to $229.99 for 500 minutes.

But satisfaction is guaranteed. All sessions are rated by the students.

If students find the tutoring unsatisfactory and a quality assurance check concurs — the fee for the session is refunded. Tutoring is charged as per actual minutes used. Currently, the company is offering 25 free minutes of tutoring for new users. So if calculus, physics or chemistry homework are causing misery for your family, get some help from tutor.com.

Cable Disruption Highlights Issues

According to Andreas Antonopoulos, senior VP and Ted Ritter, research analyst at US-based Nemertes Research, multiple undersea fiber outages in recent weeks highlight the importance of business-continuity planning. The analysts emphasize that service interruption on subcontinent or country-level connectivity can have dire consequences to any economy, as well as the outsourcing market, which depends on undersea cables to move voice and data between countries.

“Enterprises must consider diverse routing to access their carrier. A lack of confidence in the carrier infrastructure supporting low-cost outsourcers, such as those in India and China, could become a significant reason for contract non-renewals,” stated the Nemertes Research’s analysts.

“Additionally, undersea cables may be vulnerable to deliberate disruption. The United States, for example, has long had the capability to disrupt or wiretap such a connection from submarines. It is conceivable that a few surgical attacks could disable rival nation’s Internet connectivity more effectively than any cyberattack.”

Antonopoulos and Ritter urge enterprises to evaluate the vulnerability of their international branch offices and outsourcing partners to accidental and deliberate attacks against a limited number of undersea cables. Companies must also implement business-continuity plans to accommodate the potential of multiple negative events — either deliberate or accidental — occurring, simultaneously.

Pack in the Capacity

Just a couple of years back, mobile phones that came with 1GB of storage capacity were considered amazing. So what should we think about a 12GB microSDHC Card? SanDisk claims that its 12GB card represents a 50 percent boost in card capacity over 8GB microSDHC cards. SDHC is the designation for any SD (secure digital) or SD-based card that is larger than 2GB and adheres to the new SD 2.00 specification required for cards and hosts to support high capacities of 4GB to 32GB. Sounds super, but many mobile users don’t even know that their phones have SD card slots.

To learn what a card slot can do for you and your phone, click to: www.wakeupyourphone.com.

By the way, a 12GB microSDHC would store a combination of 1,500 songs, 3,600 photos and 24.5 hours of video.

Personalized Content Pushed in Yemen

Hi-Tec Alaswadi for Information Technology and GSM Solutions (Hi-Tec) will be bringing MobiComp’s Active mTicker service to Yemen’s mobile users. Hi-Tec was established in 2005 to provide innovative applications to the three mobile operators in Yemen — MTN, Sabafon and Yemen Mobile.

Active mTicker enables operators to push customized information to subscribers via an always-on, scrolling “ticker” that runs along the bottom of the screen of a mobile device when it is idle.

Through Active mTicker, when a mobile phone user sees on the phone’s screen a message, piece of content or service that interests him, he can access further information through a single click.

The service was designed to help end users find mobile content of interest and help mobile providers show users what personalized content, products, services and advertising is available — which increases revenues.

B2C e-Commerce Volume Grows

B2C e-commerce volume is increasing and exceeded $4.87 billion in Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in 2007. The Arab Advisors Group analysis of e-commerce expenditure in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Lebanon found that the total number of e-commerce users in these four countries exceeded 5.1 million people in 2007.

During the second half of 2007, the Arab Advisors Group conducted several major analytical surveys on B2C e-commerce. The surveys of Kuwait and Lebanon involved face-to-face interviews. The surveys of Saudi Arabia and UAE were conducted online.

“The UAE’s e-commerce users penetration was the highest among the countries studied. The UAE’s e-commerce users’ penetration stood at 25.1 percent. Saudi Arabia at 14.3 percent and Kuwait at 10.7 percent. Lebanon had the lowest penetration of e-commerce users with 1.6 percent of the total population,” commented Andrawes Snobar, Arab Advisors’ senior research analyst and team leader.

The UAE also had the highest average amount spent per capita over one year. As for Lebanon, it had the lowest e-commerce expenditure per capita per year and per month due to the low penetration of e-commerce users in the country. However, Lebanon registered the highest e-commerce expenditure per e-commerce user. The Arab Advisors Group believes that the e-commerce users in Lebanon are in the pioneer/early adopter categories hence tend to be much wealthier and better educated than the rest of the population — translating into higher spending per e-commerce user.