Yahoo Inc

Terry Semel stepped down as Yahoo Inc.'s chairman, severing his ties with the slumping Internet icon 7 1/2 months after he resigned as chief executive under shareholder pressure. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company named another director, Roy Bostock, to replace him as nonexecutive chairman. Semel, 64, who joined Yahoo in 2001, was hailed for building its ad business after the Internet bubble burst. But he faced calls for his dismissal as the stock tumbled last year. He was replaced as chief executive in June by Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang.

Whether a Microsoft Corp.-Yahoo Inc. combination would put a real obstacle in Google Inc.'s path or just a pothole would depend on whether the merged company got the kind of dynamic leadership that neither side has exhibited in recent years, analysts said Friday. The two companies have complementary strengths that ought to make them a tougher competitor as a team, such people said.

Acknowledging it can't beat Internet juggernaut Google Inc. on its own, Microsoft Corp. on Friday lashed its online fortunes to another Web also-ran with an unsolicited $44.6-billion bid for Yahoo Inc. Microsoft and Yahoo, two of the world's most powerful technology companies, have each spent billions of dollars over the last half-decade trying to catch up to Google in the lucrative search-engine advertising business but still find themselves as far behind as ever.

Yahoo Inc. co-founder Jerry Yang chose the name of his company in part because it referred to someone who is rude, unsophisticated and uncouth -- not the starchy executive jockeying for splashy deals. The 39-year-old billionaire has relished the title of Chief Yahoo that he picked up after he and friend David Filo started the Internet search company in 1995 as graduate students at Stanford University.

. -- It was a tenet of faith: If you worked in Silicon Valley, Microsoft Corp. was evil. During the 1990s, Microsoft used its monopoly in computer operating systems to bully so many Silicon Valley companies that some people called it the Beast from Redmond, a reference to its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Smaller tech players did everything they could to stay out of its way. Microsoft's current main competitor on the Web, Google Inc., still doesn't look kindly on the software giant.

It looks as if Yahoo will be dragged down the aisle by its suitor, Microsoft, no matter how loudly Google speaks its piece. On Monday, other potential mates with deep pockets denied they would try to beat Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6-billion offer even as investment bankers tried to help Yahoo remain unhitched. But Yahoo Inc.'

After sparring for two years over antitrust issues, Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. are preparing for the main event: a lobbying showdown over the fate of Yahoo Inc. Google, which has bulked up its presence in the nation's capital, has started raising concerns about the antitrust implications of Microsoft's proposed $44.6-billion takeover of Yahoo. Analysts said it could ask regulators to stop the deal.

Yahoo Inc.'s negotiations with Google Inc. have intensified as Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang races to find alternatives to Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited $44.6-billion takeover offer, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Yang told Yahoo employees in an e-mail that the board of directors was evaluating "a wide range of potential strategic alternatives" and had "made no decisions" about the Microsoft bid, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Only 15 minutes after becoming chairman of Yahoo Inc., Roy Bostock was startled by his first order of business: how to deal with Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6-billion buyout offer. The 67-year-old Madison Avenue veteran, chosen for his marketing expertise, had barely replaced Terry Semel the evening of Jan. 31 when Microsoft made its unsolicited bid. Bostock took the news with aplomb, according to a person familiar with the events.

The last thing the world needs is another social network that lets users chat with their friends, the head of Yahoo Inc.'s mobile Internet business said. What users need is a way to keep track of all of them. "Today, most people have too many forms of communications," said Marco Boerries, senior vice president of Yahoo's Connected Life unit. "To keep in touch with all of them, you have to go to all of these different websites."