Yahoo

I've owned shares of Yahoo Inc. since 1999. What is the outlook for the company? - D.T., via the Internet This name-brand Internet powerhouse continues to move boldly ahead despite tough online competition from Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and America Online. Most recently, it launched a new upscale dating service, Yahoo Personals Premier, that emphasizes online personality and relationship tests for $34.94 a month. Last fall, it bought online music service Musicmatch, the third-most-visited music site on the Web, for $160 million to get more people to view its Web site.

Soon companies will have to buy the electronic equivalent of a postage stamp if they want to be certain that their e-mail will be delivered to many of their customers. America Online and Yahoo, two of the world's largest providers of e-mail accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The Internet companies say that this will help them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-theft scams and other scourges that plague users of their services.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Yahoo! Inc. planned to stop using RealNetworks Inc.'s software to play audio and video on its broadcast site before reversing its decision, according to radio stations featured on the No. 1 Internet search service's site.The site, which allows users to hear programs from a large number of radio stations, planned to drop RealNetworks' software in favor of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media software by tomorrow, said Christa Wessel, Web services director at station WCPE in Wake Forest, N.C. She said the station's contact at Yahoo!

Yahoo Inc. and Carl C. Icahn announced yesterday that they had settled their dispute over the makeup of the company's board, striking a compromise that will give the dissident investor and his allies three of the board's 11 seats. The move ends a showdown that had been set for Yahoo's annual meeting Aug. 1, when shareholders would have voted on a rival slate of board members proposed by Icahn. He had vowed to pursue a sale of Yahoo to Microsoft Corp. Under the agreement, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang will remain chief executive and Roy Bostock will remain board chairman.

HotJobs.com Ltd., a job-listing Web site, said yesterday that it plans to accept Yahoo! Inc.'s $436 million cash and stock offer unless TMP Worldwide Inc. increases its all-stock bid before Thursday morning. Yahoo!, the most-used Internet search service, is seeking a bigger piece of the $10 billion-a-year market for help-wanted advertising. It made its unsolicited offer this month. The value of TMP's offer has fallen to $349.5 million from $460 million when announced in June. TMP, owner of the biggest U.S. Internet job site, Monster.

Yahoo! Inc. is best known for its catalog of Web sites, free e-mail accounts and trademark yodel. But Scott Gibson, president of Coldwell Banker's Los Angeles division, sees the giant Internet portal in a whole different light: He thinks it's one of the biggest threats to his real estate company and the rest of the established brokerage industry. That's because Yahoo!, through partnerships with fledgling online brokers, makes available to its more than 200 million monthly visitors the same real estate listings used by traditional agents.

Now that Yahoo Inc. has formally rejected Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion buyout bid, the question swirling around the biggest tech industry merger ever proposed is this: Just how much is Microsoft willing to pay? Even though Yahoo executives turned down Microsoft's offer of $31 a share, saying it "substantially undervalues" the company, they didn't reject the idea of a merger, and Microsoft gave no indication it was going away. "Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties," Microsoft said in a statement yesterday after receiving Yahoo's rejection letter.

WASHINGTON - Internet giant Yahoo Inc. had to pass documents to the Chinese government that led to the conviction of a local journalist because the company must follow local laws, co-founder Jerry Yang said yesterday. Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based media rights group, accused Yahoo last week of helping Chinese authorities to convict Shi Tao, a reporter for the daily Dangdai Shang Bao. Tao was sentenced in April to 10 years in prison for sending a Chinese government memo about the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre to foreign Web sites, the group said.

On the eve of its initial public offering, Web search provider Google Inc. has settled a long-running legal dispute by turning over 2.7 million more shares of its stock to a top competitor, Yahoo Inc. The shares would be worth about $328 million based on the midpoint of Google's targeted IPO price range of $108 to $130 a share. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, Google boosted the number of shares it plans to sell to 25.7 million to cover the new shares granted to Yahoo.

Former Dunbar star Tavon Austin is being recognized as an All-American by two major websites. CBSsports.com has Austin as a first-team "all purpose" player on special teams. Yahoo! has the West Virginia junior on its second team as a punt returner. Austin has returned 19 punts for 268 yards (14.1 per return) this season. He also also handled kick returns, averaging 26 yards per return and taking two back for touchdowns. Austin also has 89 catches for 1,063 receiving yards and 4 TDs, and he ranks second in the country in all-purpose yards.