Microsoft Corporation will focus on growing its own advertising and Internet search business after it withdrew its takeover offer for Yahoo, chairman Bill Gates said yesterday.

Microsoft has not presented an alternative strategy to compete with its dominant rival in the Internet business, Google, since withdrawing a $47.5 billion bid for Yahoo last weekend.

Analysts have been left wondering how the world’s largest software maker will increase its share of that multibillion dollar market without a major tie-up.

“We have always felt we could do very well on our own and now that’s the path we are focused on,” Gates said.

“The standard strategy for us is to just hire great engineers and surprise people at how well we can compete, even with a company that’s got a strong lead,” he said.

Gates says Microsoft remained open to making acquisitions, but declined to comment on possible candidates, such as networking sites like Facebook in which Microsoft already holds a 1.6 per cent stake. “You never know if there’s going to be a deal that makes sense,” he said.

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Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the Democratic Presidential nomination are now anywhere between 5 per cent to 20 percent. By rights she should be on her back, declared the loser by technical knockout. But not only is she standing; she is plunging ahead with a dogged ferocity.

In spite of Barack Omaha’s clear advantage in the popular vote and committed delegate tallies – a mathematical dominance unlikely to be reversed even in the remaining primary contests – Mrs. Clinton says she is being bullied by the “big boys” and vows to stay in the race until the democratic convention.

Her relentless campaign has inspired reporters variously to compare her, with a mixture of admiration and horror. Even the coughing spasms that have seizes her with alarming frequency these past few months have become an emblem of her fortitude. After she muscled her way through a foreign policy address, the New Yorker praised her ability to “suppress the coughing through sheer will.

So what makes Clinton run, even as her win at all cost strategy threatens her party’s chances against John McCain the republican candidate? The answer lies in her innately combative nature that drew Bill Clinton to her when “she was in my face from the start”. She is equally famous for a preternatural focus and what one of her friends called her “tunnel vision” along with a determination so unshakeable that her husband once told a visitor to the Oval office: “I might as well lift that desk and throw it out of the window to change her mind.” To reach her goals, she long ago learnt to embrace any tactic, however destructive.

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New polls gave Hillary Clinton fresh hope yesterday, as she chased White House rival Barack Obama, on the eve of two primaries which could shape the end-game of their marathon battle.

Clinton and Obama face voting contests today in North Carolina and Indiana, the next steps in their battle for the Democratic presidential nomination to take on presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in the November election.

The Democratic rivals set off on last minute campaign swings through Indiana and North Carolina, which hold primaries today which offer Obama the chance to finally knock Clinton out, or for her to ignite a comeback.

Obama and Hillary renewed their battle over gas tax relief yesterday in a late push for support on the eve of critical presidential showdowns in North Carolina and Indiana.

The candidates, embroiled in a grueling nominating struggle that has split the party, wooed working-class voters and launched new television advertisements attacking each other ahead of today’s votes.

For the first time in three months, the former first lady led her rival in the survey of national Democrats, by seven percentage points. Two weeks ago before the latest storm over Wright hit, Obama was up 10 points.

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A chronology of events leading to Microsoft Corp.’s decision to abandon its offer for Web search and advertising competitor Yahoo Inc.:

Feb. 1, 2008: After two years of talks and speculation, Microsoft makes unsolicited offer to buy Yahoo for $31 per share, or $44.6 billion.

Feb 3: Google Inc.’s top lawyer says the buyout could hurt Web innovation.

Feb. 4: Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang tells employees that selling to Microsoft is an option.

Feb. 11: Yahoo rejects Microsoft’s offer, saying it “substantially undervalues” the company’s brand and worldwide assets.

Feb. 19: Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates tells The Associated Press the software maker isn’t in talks with Yahoo about raising its offer. Yahoo releases details of severance plans that would take effect after a buyout, which could make the deal more expensive for Microsoft.

March 5: Yahoo extends a deadline for nominating candidates to its board, buying time to strike an alternative deal. Yahoo is said to be in talks with Google Inc., News Corp.’s MySpace.com and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL.

March 10: Senior executives meet near Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters.

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US employers cut far fewer jobs last month than in recent months and the unemployment rate dropped to five per cent, a better-than-expected showing that nonetheless reveals strains in the nation’s labor market.

For the fourth month in a row, the economy lost jobs, the Labor Department reported yesterday. But in April the losses totaled 20,000, an improvement from the 81,000 reductions in payrolls logged in March. Job losses for both February and March turned out to be a bit deeper than previously reported.

The latest snapshot of the nationwide employment conditions – while clearly still weak – was better than many economists were anticipating. They were bracing for job cuts of 75,000 and for the unemployment rate to climb to 5.2pc.

The unemployment rate, derived from a different statistical survey than the payroll figures, fell to 5pc from 5.1pc in March. That survey showed more people finding employment than those who didn’t.

Businesses are handing out pink slips as they cope with an economy that is teetering on the edge of a recession, or possibly in one already. A severe housing slump, harder-to-get credit and financial turmoil have forced people and businesses to be more cautious in their spending. And that has hurt the economy.

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The upshot: despite continuing uncertainty in financial markets, commodities are well placed to overcome most obstacles. Partly because the companies which are performing strongly in the sector are still very attractively priced and also because the demands from emerging markets and supply shortages are still such key factors for the medium term.

A fresh impetus since the new year Natural resources market has received a fresh injection of attention this year with an extra US$70bn ploughed in, raising the sector’s value to around US$400bn. However, in global terms this is not such a huge amount considering the amount of activity in this arena. While volatility has increased due to speculation and money market tightening there are still many longer-term opportunities due to persistent extraordinary growth stories and energy requirements.

Specifics – what to watch out for Gold and platinum
are obviously very topical after recently hitting all time highs – then suffering a sharp correction which we believes was to be expected. But the immediate rationale for remaining positive on gold is justified: with inflation threatening and dollar uncertainty set to continue. Likewise, there is a bullish stance on platinum, especially with extreme energy shortages in South Africa (the largest producer) meaning it cannot even be extracted from the ground.

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India is leaving the Third World so fast that it is almost possible to watch it happeneing.

Many write off India as backward and poor. The reality is that its billion people have a booming economy, excellent education and limitless ambition – and they are ready to take over the world. America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East face a reversal of fortune that will astonish us and overpower us if we do not revise our rapidly dating assumptions and prejudices.

Yes India still has poverty with the power to turn the stomach. Yes, there are still elephants striding nonchalantly through the boiling city traffic and cows on the loose in the heart of a megalopolis which crams the population half the size of Australia into fewer than 750 square kilometers. But heartbreaking as these images are, they are not a true indication of the new civilisation which is growing here in the world’s largest free country.

In India, the amazing thing is that all the intelligent people are optimistic. The economists, the writers and the thinking classes in general, are full of an infectious patriotic delight at the way their mighty country is preparing for world power. No douby some unpredictable disaster could unhorse this new hope. A recent article in Forbes mentioned that India would have the maximum number of Billionaire’s in 10 years time.

The world is paying too much attention to China and too little to India. America and Europe, in particular, simply havnt been able to cope with the threat India’s information technology industry poses to their own jobs. “They could not believe Indians could do this. To them, this was still a country of snake charmers.
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The Internet is one of the most frequently used tools for communication today. There are over millions of people who log on to the Internet every single day. Besides, with the benefits that the Internet gives, who would not want to be a part of this information superhighway.

With the Internet, you can communicate with your family and friends through emails and instant messengers, you can purchase goods and services without leaving your own home, and the Internet is one of the most promising income generating tools that everyone can use today.

In the past, you needed products or services in order to make money through the Internet. Today however, you can make money through the Internet by using affiliate programs. This program will allow you to make a substantial amount of money out of your website and is a very good home business that you would want to get in to.

First of all, you need to know what an affiliate program is and how it works in order to fully understand how you can make some money out of it. Affiliate programs is like a joint venture where you or your website becomes a partner with another website that have already developed a product or service that they are already selling in the Internet. As a partner, your job is to direct the visitors of your website to your partner website and hope that they will purchase the products or services being offered. Your website will be like the company’s marketing arm, among several.

The company you plan on being affiliated to will be providing all the necessary tools that you need in order to start the affiliate program. They will be providing the links, and some companies will provide free e-books on how you can effectively earn from affiliate programs.

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Private medical care can cost the world. Do you really want to pay it yourself, and can you afford to?

Most people see medical insurance as an additional expense. But they would never think of driving a car that is not insured. How important is a broken fender compared to the cure for an illness?

For every person that will eventually require specialist medical care, the need arises to consolidate and plan for the future. Although health insurance is usually bundled with overall life insurance policies, the truth is that you can often find services tailored to your personal needs.

Granted, that it is not everyone’s choice investment option – and it shouldnt be – but these policies provide you and your family with timely death or injury related compensation and in some opt-in cases, regular and uninterrupted income.

It is unfair to compare the yeild of an insurance policyto other mainstream investments, for the simple reason that an insurance policy is basically exactly what it says it is, an insurance policy, and the income generated is just an added feature. Instead approach it as a non-exuberant, parallel saving schemewithout seeing market performance and you will see that it is a useful tool.
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