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CARL ICAHN has purchased nearly 50 million shares of YAHOO since MICROSOFT withdrew its bid for the search company. Ichan now owns approximately 3.5% of Yahoo’s shares and is considering launching a proxy contest. Yahoo’s stock is up 5% since Icahn started buying, however, an analyst from Yahoo’s second largest shareholder, LEGG MASON, believes the whole ordeal could be a waste of time if Microsoft doesn’t come back to the table.
EARTHLINK has dismantled its municipal Wi-Fi offering in Philadelphia. Earthlink is simply abandoning the $17 million dollar project it started in 2006 in Philadelphia, which is the latest and largest city to end their municipal Wi-Fi service. The service, which had high hopes but never caught on, only carried 5,000 subscribers of a projected 100,000. The problem facing municipal Wi-Fi projects is simple; how do you monetize it.
CLEAR CHANNEL has accepted a revised $17.9 billion buyout by BAIN CAPITAL and THL PARTNERS. The deal ends a nearly two year battle to make Clear Channel a private entity, a deal that often pit the six banks that agreed to finance the deal (CITIGROUP, DEUTSCHE BANK, MORGAN STANLEY, CREDIT SUISSE, the ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND and WACHOVIA) against Clear Channel and the private equity firms. If the deal gains SEC approval, Clear Channel could be a private company in three to four months.
LG and SAMSUNG are teaming up to fight QUALCOMM and protect their interests in mobile TV. Qualcomm’s MediaFLO has been gaining momentum lately due to contracts with AT&T and VERIZON, the top wireless providers in the United States. LG and Samsung will need to fight a bitter lobbying battle in Washington in order to make their ATSC-M/H standard in the U.S. This move comes roughly three years too late for the South Korean manufacturers.
MYSPACE won $230 million in a judgement regarding Spam messages sent to its users. The settlement comes after Spamking Sanford Wallace (aka “Spamford”) and his partner, Walter Rines, sent more than 700,000 unsolicited messages to MySpace members. The $230 million settlement is by far the largest since Congress passed the 2003 federal anti-spam law known as CAN-SPAM.