Orsum.com

Yesterday articles surfaced that Yahoo would reject the recent takeover offer from Microsoft. Apparently they would be looking for at least $40 per share, versus the $31 tabled by Steve Balmer and Bill Gates. At that level, Yahoo would be valued at some $60bn which is ambitious to say the least. Even at the current asking price Microsoft would likely dip into debt for the first time in its history, and with their own shares on the slide since making the offer, the $46.6bn cash and shares deal now represents just $41bn which would need to be sweetened with more cash or more shares.

I find it particularly interesting, however, that rumours of a Yahoo-AOL alliance have been re-spawned with numerous credible sources such as ZDnet, the UK's Times, and the Seattle Times regarding this as a genuine possibility. Here's my related posting on what options the Yahoo-Microsoft deal left AOL with.

This article in the Financial Times, meanwhile, indicates Microsoft may dig in for the long haul, and launch a proxy fight.

Watch this space!

In my regular review of news on portals, web services and technology, I encountered a solid site called paidcontent.org, dedicated to content trends. A good read!

I have been using True Crypt for quite some time now and I highly recommend it.
It boasts an impressive array of encryption methods which can be cascaded to create a triple layer of 256 bit algorithms for those more security conscious amongst you! You can use keys, passwords, or a combination of the two and with the latest version, released this week, you can now encrypt entire drives including your Windows boot drives. Equally, you can create containers from existing files which can then be transferred and backed up between storage mediums.

Algorithms: AES, Serpent, Two-Fish

If this isn't exactly what you're looking for, AX Crypt is a great alternative offering very easy encryption support of files and folders directly from the Windows context menu. This is also high recommended.

In a move likely to thrill the British National Party, the Archbishop of Canterbury has raised the suggestion of adopting certain aspects of Islamic Sharia law in the UK. Whilst his suggestions, if ever implemented, would rather offer a more relevant judicial alternative to UK Muslims than having implications on the rest of the population, many will argue that the significant imigration in recent years serves to show Britain is already more than accommodating and should go no further. People will no doubt also argue that this will further alienate elements of the indiginous population, and accelerate their outward emigration.


Additional related article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6190080.stm

Further commentary and responses: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7233335.stm

Are you a UK muslim who would welcome this, and feel more comfortable? Perhaps you're from another country and have a different view? What are your thoughts? Post your comments.

Here's an interesting article on Japanese plans to launch 100 paper aeroplanes from the international space station, and then await their return to earth.

And for those who loved making paper planes in their childhood, here's a decent origami site from down under to get you started:
http://www.papercrane.org/index/Diagrams

1999 (V-reg) BMW E46 323ci (coupe) for sale in the UK

• 2.5 litre, 24 valve flat 6 petrol engine (172bhp)
• 5 speed manual gearbox
• 170,000 miles
  
• 12 months MOT, 2 months road tax
  
• Right hand drive
  

• Topaz blue metallic
• 16” MV alloy wheels
• Rear spoiler
• Xenon lights
• Heated wing mirrors
• Electric tilt and slide sunroof

• Full leather interior
• Electric front seats (+memory)
• Front centre arm rest
• Air conditioning
• Cruise control via multi-function steering wheel
• BMW Business 6 CD multichanger
• Auto-dimming rear view mirror
• 6 airbags
• Traction control
• Factory-fitted alarm and immobilizer

Like many of you, i've been tracking the Yahoo-Microsoft, or should I say Microsoft-Yahoo deal with a keen interest since the story broke last week. One angle which has been gaining particular consideration is what such a portal consolidation would mean for the likes of AOL.

Unlike Google, with their array of distinct services, AOL MSN and Yahoo all offer a largely the same competing portfolio of services via a centralised portal, with very little to differentiate between them. For example, all three really do seem to have engineered all possible potential out of the concept of instant messaging. AOL's recent launch of "real team IM" is hardly a pioneeringly brilliant leap forward, is it? Further evidence of just how tight the competition and strategies of these companies are was visible in this article which remarked on the similarity in design between AOL.com and Yahoo.com.


AOL has recently been making efforts to break away from a largely US-centric past with the agressive launch of a large number of international portals. Whilst the result is a series of clean portals with localised services and resources, none of them are pioneering. They offer IM, E-mail, news, and a similar series of localised resources as you would expect from Yahoo.

At present, AOL is 95% owned by Time-Warner, and 5% by Google, making it slightly more complicated a purchase for anyone other than Google. However a spin-off seems unlikely after Time-Warner announced a plan during their quarterly results yesterday, to split the unit into an Access and Audience business.

Who else would buy AOL? They continue to hemorrhage access subscribers (currently 9.3 million from 13.1 a year earlier and over 30 million in its hey day), and boast no significant differentiator. Granted they still have an impressive list of assets such as advertising.com and mapqwest, not to mention ICQ and AIM which, let's not forget, remains the most popular IM platform in the US. However, even the historically popular Netscape browser is about to be axed by AOL. Then again, they're still expanding through acquisitions!

Here are some interesting strategies i've seen rumoured recently:

1) AOL & Time-Warner team with News Corp to launch a combined bid for Yahoo. In all seriousness I cannot see the synergy for Time-Warner, or an appetite on their part. By all accounts die hard Time-Warner folks resent AOL as the reason for their languishing stock price, so buying even more into "new media" wouldn't go down so well. AOL does not seem strong enough to compete with Microsoft, and doesn't necessarily want to compete with Google, so this strategy is unlikely.

2) AOL & Time-Warner buy Yahoo alone. As above, but even more unlikely.
Time-Warner's current depressed market capitalisation of $56bn, coupled with a stunted lending market since the sub prime crisis, would not bode well if they wanted to borrow $44bn or more. Private equity just doesn't have the appetite any more. Having said that, their annual revenue for 2007 does exceed Microsoft's offer price.

3) Closer Google alliance.
This is open to interpretation, and is quite feasible if Google wishes to further bolster its position in the face of a combined Yahoo and MSN. They could leverage AOL assets and add some Google magic to re-invent them, perhaps?

4) Seel AOL to a cable company or ISP
ComCast? Earthlink?
This always crops up as a possibility, but would a declining subscriber base combined with typical churn really prove a mouth-watering proposition for the likes of ComCast?