So what further?

With MS trying to acquire Yahoo and Yahoo's board rejecting it as of now, here's what could happen:

(Thanks to Professor Davidoff, a former corporate attorney at Shearman & Sterling and a professor at Wayne State University Law School.)

1. Fight it out in the Proxy Contest. Yahoo will argue that Microsoft’s bid undervalues it; that the cultures will not match; that Microsoft has an uncertain future; and that its offered stock is an inappropriate investment. The dispute will be an ad-man’s dream, as Microsoft and Yahoo will daily fight out this contest in ads placed in national newspapers, mailings to shareholders and in the media generally. However, given the significant arbitrage position in Yahoo and the premium Microsoft is offering, Yahoo’s chances with this strategy appear to be less than certain.

2. Third-Party Buy-out. For this defense, Yahoo has to find a third party willing to buy. Then, if Yahoo decided to sell to a third party, the board would trigger its “Revlon” duties. The Yahoo board would now be required to accept the highest price reasonably available. It is hard to see Microsoft being outbid by many companies, except perhaps Google. But a pure acquisition bid by Google is unlikely given the regulatory issues that would surround it.

3. Alliance or Acquisition. This could be one of Yahoo’s best options, if it can find a good partner or acquisition. A third-party alliance with or acquisition of AOL, for example, would make Yahoo less attractive to Microsoft. If Yahoo wants to play hardball, it can attempt a transaction that would create regulatory problems for any acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft. Of course, the problem with this technique is that if it succeeds, Yahoo will be stuck making the alliance or acquisition work. And if Microsoft finds the transaction unattractive enough to refuse to buy, then, well…

4. Crown Jewel Sale. Yahoo could sell its stake in AliBaba or another of its key assets in an attempt to make it less attractive to Microsoft. Again, though, Yahoo would be deprived of this asset if Microsoft simply went away. 5. Leveraged Recapitalization. Yahoo could play the old 1980s standard by levering up its balance sheet with debt and using the debt to buy back its shares at a premium. I suppose this may be possible for a technology company nowadays, though I’m not sure given the state of the credit markets. Still, this maneuver only makes Yahoo more expensive to buy — it does not forestall a bid by Microsoft if Microsoft is willing to pay to refinance the debt post-acquisition.

Thats too impressive..

Last week, I happened to see two videos which I would recommend "must watch" for all.

The first video is from TED, an annual conference held in California. This speaker is Mr. Hans Rosling, a Professor of global health at Karolinska Institute, Sweden. He talks about the macro economics and proves that how facts can break pre conceived notions.

The second video is more fun, also from TED, this one by by Anand Agarwala, the creator of BumpTop, a new GUI for destop. Watch for the applause when he calls the MAC and Windows desktop looks as "crap".

No Good…only the Bad and the ugly..

This is my first post in the New Year, exactly after 33 days.

I have been putting off writing about internship hunting because in my particular case, there hasn't been much action. Lemme say that again, there hasn't been any action. Except for some early disappointments. While the Internship interviews are in full fledge and the coveted Investment banking, finance and the “biggies” consulting interviews are on. While finance was never my cup of tea, the bad news is that I got rejected from the consulting biggies. Similar is the case with many of my friends who have gone through the process and have been unsuccessful. And I (we) have already begun feeling the pressure of the feared recession in North America. The daily newspaper contains reports of job cuts in US and Canada by major companies.

While I am confident of landing in a good summer internship, I would have been much happier, had I got into the BCG or the McKinsey. I am waiting for some miracle to happen, so that I can be there atleast for my full time. I am hoping that the market would also recover by that time and history proves that whenever the economy has recovered from the down cycle, the consulting and marketing jobs would boom.

Keeping my fingers tightly crossed for now and waiting for the D-Day when I could declare of my internship success.