It appears Jerry Yang’s appeal for Microsoft to buy Yahoo is falling on deaf ears. According to AP, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is just not interested anymore:

“We made an offer, we made another offer, and it was clear that Yahoo didn’t want to sell the business to us and we moved on,” Ballmer said. “We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don’t know why they would be either, frankly. They turned us down at $33 a share.”

I can’t say I blame him. He did leave the door open for a partnership deal–likely similar to that he proposed before Google stepped in–saying:

“I’m sure there are still some opportunities for some kind of partnership around search, but I think acquisition is a thing of the past”

As I look out my window, I can’t help but compare Yahoo to one of the Fall leaves still on the tree. Desperately clinging to life, but ultimately doomed to blow around in the wind: directionless and likely to end up in the gutter.

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It’s not difficult to see just how important social media was to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. He had a long list of social media touch points, including:

• His official blog.
• His mass of Facebook and MySpace friends.
• Twitter followers.
• His Flickr photos and YouTube videos.
• His excellent online reputation and his attempts to fight vicious rumors.

Now the question being asked is; can, and will, Barack Obama continue with his social media efforts, when he assumes the office of President of the United States? Will the transparency continue?

Early signs suggest that our next Commander-in-Chief will remain entrenched in social media. The launch of Change.gov demonstrates his attempt to bring democracy kicking and screaming into the Web 2.0 age. Not only does the site have a blog–and profiles of Obama and Biden–but you can see Obama’s agenda as President, share your vision for America, and even apply for a job at the White House!

Many elected officials abandoned their campaign initiatives the moment the election is over–when did you last see a TV ad thanking you for your vote?–but Obama appears to at least be making an attempt to continue his effort.

The big question is, can the President of the United States be allowed to be so open and transparent? Is it in our best interests for Obama to share his agenda, thoughts, and even travel plans with the world? How would it look?

That’s where I see there being the biggest stumbling block for President-elect Obama and why I believe we will ultimately see his social media efforts become two, one-way monologs. What do I mean by this? Obama will use social media (selectively) to talk to the people and we will, in turn, use social media to send Obama our thoughts and input. But a true, social media conversation? I wouldn’t hold my breath.

More here:
Just How Much Transparency Should We Expect from President Obama?

Wow, something’s up here—this is the second time this week we’ve written about MySpace. The granddaddy of all social networks is having quite the week for news, with the announcement of their video fingerprinting ad partnership Monday, their Q3 announcement, rumors about the income from their new ad platform and rumors about naming a CEO for their new music division. Whew!

Yesterday, MySpace’s parent (grandparent?) company, News Corp, discussed its Q3 earnings. While many of the conglomerate’s divisions did poorly, MySpace’s unit still posted a 17% increase in revenue YOY. However, they are feeling the hit of the failing economy, as Rupert Murdoch said:

“We are doing slightly better than the marketplace, but it’s clear from everybody else that there’s a lot of softening in the display advertising marketplace, and we are clearly beginning to feel some of that.”

However, their new ad platform, MySpace MyAds, is doing booming business. Michael Arrington’s sources estimate that the three-week-old platform is raking in on average $140,000 to $180,000 a day—making it a $50M a year business in less than a month. These levels may be sustainable long term, too.

Our sources say that a large number of ad arbitragers are trying out the system, as well as many of the millions of music artists that have MySpace pages. Those artist ads are doubly profitable for MySpace, since the ads link back to MySpace web pages, driving up page views and additional advertising impressions.

Outsiders are estimating that MySpace revenues for the fiscal year ending June 2009 will reach $1 billion. It’s clear that MyAds will be a significant driver of revenue growth. 2008 revenue was estimated to $750 million.

Finally, MySpace Music, which launched in September, is shopping for a CEO. AllThingD’s Peter Kafka notes, however, that the job doesn’t carry as much prestige as the title normally would, since it’s only a divisional CEO position. He says Courtney Holt, head of Viacom & MTV’s digital music, will be announced as the MySpace Music CEO tonight or tomorrow.

In the tech blogosphere, MySpace is often treat as if it’s “so yesterday”—now even its biggest challenger has lost its media darling status. But MySpace continues to innovate for users and advertisers—which probably has a lot to do with why they’re still the most popular social network online.

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MySpace Revenue Up, New Ads Up Even More

The most popular video site on the web, YouTube has long been in negotiations with movie studios to stream full-length feature films. And while there are still a lot of details to be hammered out, sources say that the deal could be complete in thirty to ninety days, according to CNET reports today.

Among the major sticking points, as with everything else on YouTube, is finding the right way to monetize full-length films. According to two studio sources, YouTube parent Google is insistent upon one particular form, though they didn’t say whether that was preroll, postroll or overlays. And of course, there’s still the issue of balancing enough advertising to make it worthwhile to the site and the studio without driving away the viewers.

And here’s something I never thought I’d say: YouTube’s major competition in this area will come from none other than Hulu. Hulu has totally pwned come to dominate the long-form video market online, with high quality streaming. As CNET points out:

A showdown between Hulu and the 3-year-old YouTube was inevitable. Consider that Hulu, the joint video venture formed by NBC Universal and News Corp., attracts only a fraction of the 80 million people who visit YouTube each month, but Hulu still managed to generate nearly the same revenue in its first year in business, according to reports.

Naturally, that strength for YouTube—audience size—is a big reason why the studios have turned to YouTube instead of Hulu.

There is a little bit of precedent for the YouTube deals as well. In July, YouTube announced a partnership with Canadian film company Lionsgate. This partnership yielded film previews from Lionsgate with links to purchase the full-length film for download.

What do you think—will YouTube become the long-form streaming video destination, will they split the market with Hulu, or will the deal never materialize?

via

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YouTube to Show Full-Length Films by Year End?

If Jerry Yang were a college football coach, his athletic director would likely have already asked him to step down, or else. Just ask Tommy Bowden (formerly of Clemson) what happens when you promise much, but deliver zip.

Of course, Jerry Yang is not solely responsible for Yahoo’s current woes, but in light of the fact that Yahoo failed to get a deal done with Microsoft (at $31 a share) and bet big on a partnership with Google–a deal even Google didn’t believe would be approved–is it time for him to resign?

I ask because of the sorry state Yahoo is now in. Even if Yang is somehow able to entice Microsoft back to the negotiating table, the company would likely fetch less than $15 a share–compare that to the $31 the company previously turned down.

Yang seems like a great guy–the very essence of what it means to be a Yahoo–but I’ve known plenty of nice guys and they don’t all make great CEOs (or football coaches).

What do you think? Should Yang stay on, or step down?

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