Gawkwire: Web Hosting and Internet News Resource

Parallels Announces Summit 2008

2008-02-06T20:22:00-05:00

Parallels (formerly SWsoft) has opened registration for Parallels Summit 2008 to be held May 19-20 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. This annual event for customers, partners and other industry participants will feature in-depth product, strategy and networking sessions for business and IT professionals.

Previously open only to partners, Summit 2008 will provide attendees with insight on trends such as software as a service (SaaS) and "Green" computing, as well as opportunities to meet with senior engineers and preview future Parallels products and initiatives. Last year's event was sponsored by industry leaders including AMD, Intel, IBM and Microsoft and attracted attendees from more than 19 countries.

"Parallels 2008 Summit offers attendees a unique opportunity to learn and take advantage of important developments that are rapidly reshaping computing and business," said Kurt Daniel, senior vice president of marketing and online, Parallels. "We are excited to expand the Summit this year to address consumer, business and service provider technologies and topics."

Business attendees at the Summit can expect to:
• Network with other industry professionals
• Learn how Parallels products can help grow revenue and/or reduce costs
• Improve their business by acting on trends and ideas discussed at the Summit
• Preview product roadmaps and major unreleased versions
• Learn how to take advantage of Parallels Open Platform

Technical attendees at the Summit can expect to:
• Interact directly with Parallels engineers
• Participate in advanced training forums with other Parallels users
• View live demos of upcoming Parallels releases
• Learn how to optimize Parallels products
• Give feedback to improve Parallels products

The Parallels Summit 2008 begins Monday, May 19 at 8 a.m. and concludes on Tuesday, May 20 at 5 p.m. A detailed agenda of planned sessions and activities, registration and sponsorship information is available at www.parallels.com/summit.

Space is limited and registration and hotel accommodations are subject to availability. http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/56.html

14 Million 'Smart' Households in 2012

2008-02-06T20:03:00-05:00

ON World's extensive investigation with over 100 home installers, vendors, and suppliers found that the wireless smart home market is accelerating. Indicators of this growth include hundreds of products currently shipping and established service providers such as AT&T and SK Telecom are starting to offer WSN based home monitoring services.

"While proprietary WSN systems have been used by professional installers in luxury homes for over a decade, wireless protocols such as Z-Wave and ZigBee will make smart home solutions affordable for the average household," says Darryl Gurganious, senior research analyst for ON World.

With a total potential market size of 6 billion cumulative WSN nodes worldwide, the residential sector is an essential target market for wireless sensing and control solutions. Some of the largest and fastest growing smart home markets include lighting, energy management, security, entertainment control, and home health. In 2012, the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) smart home market will be worth $2.8 billion worldwide, up from $470 million in 2007.

Wireless Protocols Collide

The growth of the smart home market is largely attributed to the success of wireless mesh networking protocols such as ZigBee and Z-Wave and the industry alliances that were formed to promote each of these. ZigBee and Z-Wave are battling over control of the smart home. ZigBee based solutions are preferred by global manufacturers and professional installers. Z-Wave is increasingly being adopted by retail focused companies such as Actiontec, Intermatic, Jasco, Hawking, and Monster Cable.

ON World's recent report, "WSN for Smart Homes," dissects the ZigBee/ Z-Wave battle and provides evidence that clarifies the market hype and controversy over these protocols. In addition, the report provides in-depth chip level evaluation, global forecasts, primary research with installers, and an extensive competitive analysis on 70 companies in the WSN smart home value system. For more information, go to: http://onworld.com/smarthomes/

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/55.html

HostMySite.com Expands Into New Headquarters

2008-02-04T11:24:00-05:00

Newark, DE (GAWKWIRE) The new headquarters are located in Newark, Delaware - adjacent to the company's previous workspace, which housed both employee offices and one of the company's state-of-the-art data centers. According to the company, a further portion of the former headquarters building will now be converted into data center space occupying over eight thousand square feet. The majority of the move to the new facilities was accomplished over a period of several hours late at night, to minimize any effect on current web hosting and dedicated server customers.

Derek Vaughan, Vice President of Marketing at HostMySite.com commented on the milestone, ''In order to serve our hosting customers with the highest levels of quality and support, HostMySite.com must continue to keep pace on the employee side of the equation. This means that to manage the growth in customer accounts we must add the corresponding compliment of engineering and technical support staff. With our rapid growth over the past few months, HostMySite.com simply outgrew the previous facilities. With the move to the new Worldwide Corporate Headquarters, the company can now expand data center space quickly, while preparing for continued customer growth.''

HostMySite.com was founded by partners Lou Honick and Neil Heuer in 1997. The foundation of the culture at HostMySite.com is a top-down commitment to complete customer satisfaction. In the past year, HostMySite.com has provided customers with an upgraded call center, a new hosting control panel, and the build out of an additional state-of-the-art data center. The data center boasts a completely redundant network of premier Tier 1 providers with 6 fiber-optic connections and consistent delivery of 100% uptime. The company has also maintained a solid financial history being debt free, profitable and growing. With a combination of sophisticated hosting technology and applied business knowledge, HostMySite.com provides individuals, small businesses, and large corporations with affordable dedicated servers, VPS hosting, and ColdFusion web hosting, supported by 24x7x365 live support through toll-free telephone, email, and live online chat.

George Roberts, a respected web hosting industry expert and founder of the hosted services industry's premier conference and tradeshow, HostingCon, added, ''HostMySite.com is clearly doing many things right with regard to the SMB web hosting market. The company's commitment to service and the well-being of the customer is paying rich dividends in account growth. I expect to see HostMySite.com at the forefront of web hosting growth for the foreseeable future.''

HostMySite.com was also recently honored as a Fortune 5000 company. To learn more about HostMySite.com please visit, www.HostMySite.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/34.html

The Planet, Names New Data Center Head

2008-02-04T11:21:00-05:00

Houston, TX (GAWKWIRE) James P. Treuting, Vice President, Sales and Operations noted, ''Scott King brings to The Planet tremendous skills and expertise in managing large and complex data center operations. Throughout his career, he has implemented policies and procedures to advance strong relationships between technical staffs and the customers they serve. As an ITIL-certified manager, he has a keen knowledge of the advanced skills and standards required for world-class data center management.''

Mr. King will report to Mr. Treuting and brings to The Planet a broad range of experience in managing enterprise-class data centers and technical teams across multiple operating platforms and applications. He joins the company following an eight-year tenure with Data Return where he served in a number of increasingly responsible roles. Most recently, King directed a 106-person support-services organization that included management responsibilities for all server-side operational and network support, in addition to data centers and change administration. At Data Return, he also served as manager of quality assurance, manager of customer support and as a technical account manager. Previous experience includes work with Software Spectrum, where he served as a software engineer.

Recently, The Planet's Vice President of Network Operations, Stan O. Barber, recently delivered an address at the 30th annual Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) Telecom with Vision tradeshow. Mr. Barber commented, ''As customers demand additional functionality, we will begin to see broader adoption of IPv6. There are no significantly large companies driving adoption, so we face a chicken-and-egg scenario that has plagued widespread deployment. While anyone can connect to IPv6 today using a tunnel broker, it is difficult to use such connections when driving traffic of any significant bandwidth. Having providers deliver IPv6 natively removes this bandwidth barrier and makes it possible for web sites, as an example, to deliver the same content with the same experience over IPv6 and IPv4.''

Mr. Barber's remarks included a discussion about the emerging adoption of IPv6, and the barriers to entry over the IPv4 standard. The conference was held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort and Spa in Honolulu. The conference agenda covered issues related to emerging changes and strategic business drivers that affect today's telecommunications industry.

The PTC opened its 30th anniversary conference with the largest attendance in five years, and a 20% increase from last year, as thousands of professionals converged in the biggest East-West conference in the industry. The conference overall spent much time discussing current regulatory issues as well. Bottom line is that reregulation is coming; globally, the days of continuous deregulation are over. Privacy, security, and digital dividend, to developing markets and population are the key issues in today's regulatory environment.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/33.html

Go Daddyâ€™s â€˜Beaverâ€™ Builds Tremendous Web Traffic

2008-02-04T11:13:00-05:00

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (GAWKWIRE) You could use the phrase “busy as a beaver” to describe the Go Daddy Web site during this year’s Super Bowl. More than one million video views were tracked to GoDaddy.com Sunday and that was before the dramatic game even ended. It’s believed to be one of the largest spikes in Super Bowl advertising history.

Super Bowl viewers went online to see Go Daddy Girl Danica Patrick’s “Exposure” ad almost on cue. They were directed to do so by Go Daddy’s televised ad, which aired at the beginning of the second-quarter. The long-awaited “Exposure” commercial featured animatronics beavers in a spoof of the paparazzi and certain female celebrities.

Go Daddy originally intended “Exposure” to be its Super Bowl ad, but Fox rejected it, insisting the word “beaver” be removed. Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons refused, saying instead, he would “make lemonade out of lemons.”

Go Daddy Productions went to work to create “Spot On,” which was approved for broadcast. It invited viewers to go to GoDaddy.com to see the rejected commercial and was essentially an ad for an ad, which was a first for Super Bowl commercials. “Spot On” contained a “Viewer Discretion” advisory – also thought to be a Super Bowl advertising first.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Danica’s Exposure is probably our funniest ad ever,” Parsons declared. “It is definitely our most effective ad in terms of immediate results.” The outspoken CEO, renowned for his marketing prowess, posted the ad to his blog, www.BobParsons.com, about 90-minutes before kick-off and asked readers to share their thoughts.

Comments varied widely, but no one can argue the commercial’s effectiveness for generating online traffic. As the post-game celebrations were being broadcast, GoDaddy.com was already reporting more than 1.5 million visits to its site. Those numbers continue to climb rapidly.

“We’re thrilled – think about it, it was one of the greatest Super Bowl games ever played and yet fans still took time to come to our site during the game,” Parsons beamed.

Traffic stats are expected to surge again tomorrow (Monday, Feb. 4). In past years, the Monday following the game has yielded traffic spikes as fans talk about the ads, and then go online to see them for the first time, or to enjoy them again with colleagues and friends.

To see “Exposure,” visit www.GoDaddy.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/32.html

SECNAP Network Security Voted 'Hot Company of 2008'

2008-02-04T10:53:00-05:00

BOCA RATON, Fla. (GAWKWIRE) SECNAP(R) Network Security Corporation, a leading provider of network and email security solutions, today announced it has won distinction as a Hot Company of 2008. The award was bestowed at the 2008 Technosium Executive Summit in Santa Clara, Calif. on January 28, 2008. At the Summit, Michael Scheidell, chief technology officer for SECNAP, presented an overview of the company to an assembly of industry leaders, educators and media, summarizing how SECNAP products, people, performance and potential differentiate his firm in the network security arena.

In responding to the award, Mr. Scheidell said, "It's an honor to be recognized as a technology pioneer. This award validates the SECNAP team's profound and abiding commitment to ongoing product innovation and invention. This year, as always, we are acutely focused on continuing our leadership in developing network and email security solutions that not only meet, but also anticipate, the needs of our customers."

The Executive Summit team at Technosium 2008 was represented by technology companies from around the world in networking, wireless, mobile, software, storage and security. Technology updates were provided by more than 150 companies including Cisco Systems, IBM, Juniper Networks, Intel, HP, Oracle and others.

About SECNAP
SECNAP Network Security was founded in 2001 in Boca Raton, Fla. and is a leading provider of network and email security solutions for organizations ranging from small businesses to global enterprises. Through time-critical security monitoring, SECNAP delivers measurable results that translate to bottom-line savings. The company's innovative, easy-to-use products include SpammerTrap(TM), which stops spam, viruses and phishing emails and is available as an appliance or hosted solution; HackerTrap(TM), a patent-pending managed network security system that protects company assets; and expert Testing and Auditing services, including compliance and IT risk assessments and penetration testing. SECNAP is a Technosium Hot Companies of 2008 winner. For more information, visit www.secnap.com.

About the Technosium 2008 Executive Summit
Technosium 2008 Executive Summit and Conference and Expo is supported by Silicon Valley Communications, San Jose Mercury News, Wi-Fi Alliance, Trusted Computing Group, Information Security Professionals Association, Network Products Guide, Personal Broadband Industry Association, Covenant, Wireless Communications Alliance, Info Security Products Guide, Stanford Graduate School of Business and Smart Capitol Venture (SCV Network). For details visit www.technosium.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/31.html

Moniker.com Brokers Sale for US $4 Million

2008-02-03T10:34:00-05:00

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (GAWKWIRE) Moniker (www.moniker.com), a provider of Domain Asset Management(TM) services, continued to lead the industry in premium adult-related domain name sales having successfully brokered the sale of FreePorn. com, an adult entertainment portal, for US $4 million. Separately, Moniker also finalized its domain name auctions at Internext Las Vegas, grossing more than $1.5 million in domain name sales from that event.

The sale of FreePorn. com marks one of the largest two-word domain name sales in history and is the largest domain transaction of 2008, to date. The site was launched in 1996 and has consistently been one of the largest portals of free, adult entertainment on the Web. The site has continually gown in page and traffic rank according to Alexa.

"A marketable domain name is crucial to the success of any online adult entertainment business, perhaps more so than in any other industry," said Monte Cahn, co-founder and President of Moniker. "FreePorn. com is generic in nature, helping its new owner benefit from direct navigation and general in- bound inquires directed at the site daily."

Moniker Finalizes Auctions From Internext Las Vegas

Moniker has also verified its live and online auction results at Internext Las Vegas 2008, the world's largest business-to-business online and digital media adult conference.

To view all the inventory that was sold during both the live and online auction, visit http://marketplacepro.moniker.com/auction/events/185/results.html

During intense live bidding, more than 60 domains sold for $1.1 million; SickSiteNetwork, a group of successful sites, including ConsumptionJunction .com and a fully functioning business, was the biggest sale of the night, netting $550,000.

The concurrent online auction netted an additional $125,000.

Further, Moniker has donated the proceeds from the sale of AdultPhotoExchange .com to The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP). The $5,000 sale proceeds will allow the ASACP to continue its commitment to protect children's welfare online.

"The donation of AdultPhotoExchange .com from Moniker is much appreciated and will increase awareness about the ASACP and its mission, as well as help fund our operations," said Joan Irvine, CEO of ASACP. "By following professional business practices that reflect that an online business is 'by and for adults' only, Web site operators are helping protect children. Companies like Moniker are examples to the adult community. Their commitment to educating business owners on how to professionally and ethically manage their online business is commendable."

Moniker was responsible for selling more than $20 million in adult-related domains in 2007, including names sold at separate Internext auctions in Las Vegas and Miami last year. Moniker remains the only Domain Asset Management company and auctioneer for various niche markets including adult, gaming/gambling, affiliate, webmasters, geo-targeted, and more.

http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/30.html

RapidShare is Appealing obligations of Web Hosters

2008-02-04T10:28:00-05:00

CHAM, Switzerland (GAWKWIRE) The District Court in Duesseldorf has rejected the negative appeal by RapidShare against GEMA. RapidShare wants to bring about a decision from the appellate court in this legal dispute concerning the verification of legal obligations of web hosters and is appealing. This original judgment has no effect on the operation of rapidshare.com.

"Our goal is legal security," explained Bobby Chang, CEO of RapidShare. "The proceedings were the most necessary step to achieve it."

RapidShare had already lost one prior original proceeding initiated by GEMA, most parts of which were repealed in the second instance. The Regional Court of Appeals in Cologne reached the opinion that RapidShare does fulfill its legal obligations, if it removes individual publicly accessible music files from its services. The court furthermore acknowledged that it is impossible for RapidShare or it is not reasonable to expect RapidShare to prevent that musical work are offered as such via its platform.

"According to our opinion, it is counterproductive to comprehensively condemn the internet and hosting, because there is a way to misuse them, which is true for any infrastructure", according to Chang. "The objective is to handle this subject reasonably and discerningly in Germany."

The core of the proceedings is to define the verification duties of hosting companies, which have been interpreted differently to date. The requirements span from the use of software filters, the registration of all users, and the increase of the number of abuse staff up to the verification of link resources. Which software filters are sufficient for the verification requirements, how many abuse staff members are reasonable and which of the link resources, of which there are hundreds, have to be checked, is not consistently defined.

"It is even more significant that all of these measures will not be sufficient to stop the misuse of hosting services with a 100 percent guarantee. As a consequence, they will not solve the overall problem. To provide an innovative infrastructure and simultaneously prevent all misuse is a requirement that the internet industry cannot fulfill. The topic has to be discussed on a different level in Germany," concluded Chang.

Journalists will receive the link to download the original text of the court's opinion (in German) at press@rapidshare.com.

About RapidShare
RapidShare AG hosts information for companies and private individuals: The user loads his data in a few steps onto his system via the so-called 1 click hosting and receives a link at which he can again download or delete the information, if desired. RapidShare AG was established in 2006 and has its central office in Cham, Switzerland.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/29.html

Microsoft Proposes Acquisition of Yahoo! for $31 per Share

2008-02-04T00:20:00-05:00

REDMOND, Wash. (GAWKWIRE) Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that it has made a proposal to the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) Board of Directors to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft's proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008.

"We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft. "We believe our combination will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders and better choice and innovation to our customers and industry partners."

"Our lives, our businesses, and even our society have been progressively transformed by the Web, and Yahoo! has played a pioneering role by building compelling, high-scale services and infrastructure," said Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft. "The combination of these two great teams would enable us to jointly deliver a broad range of new experiences to our customers that neither of us would have achieved on our own."

The online advertising market is growing at a very fast pace, from over $40 billion in 2007 to nearly $80 billion by 2010. The resulting benefits of scale along with the associated capital costs for advertising platform providers make this a time of industry consolidation and convergence. Today this market is increasingly dominated by one player. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a competitive choice while better fulfilling the needs of customers and partners.

"The combined assets and strong services focus of these two companies will enable us to achieve scale economics while reaching R&D critical mass to deliver innovation breakthroughs," said Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms & Services Division of Microsoft. "The industry will be well served by having more than one strong player, offering more value and real choice to advertisers, publishers and consumers."

The combination will create a more efficient company with synergies in four areas: scale economics driven by audience critical mass and increased value for advertisers; combined engineering talent to accelerate innovation; operational efficiencies through elimination of redundant cost; and the ability to innovate in emerging user experiences such as video and mobile. Microsoft believes these four areas will generate at least $1 billion in annual synergy for the combined entity.

Microsoft has developed a plan and process that will include the employees of both companies to focus on the integration of the combined business. Microsoft intends to offer significant retention packages to Yahoo! engineers, key leaders and employees across all disciplines.

Microsoft believes this proposed combination would receive all necessary regulatory approvals and expects that the proposed transaction would be completed in the second half of calendar year 2008.

Microsoft is also committed to working closely with Yahoo! management and its Board of Directors as they, along with Yahoo! shareholders, evaluate this compelling proposal.

Below is the text of the letter that Microsoft sent to Yahoo!'s Board of Directors:

January 31, 2008

Board of Directors
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Attention: Roy Bostock, Chairman
Attention: Jerry Yang, Chief Executive Officer

Dear Members of the Board:

I am writing on behalf of the Board of Directors of Microsoft to make a proposal for a business combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!. Under our proposal, Microsoft would acquire all of the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 based on Microsoft's closing share price on January 31, 2008, payable in the form of $31 in cash or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock. Microsoft would provide each Yahoo! shareholder with the ability to choose whether to receive the consideration in cash or Microsoft common stock, subject to pro-ration so that in the aggregate one-half of the Yahoo! common shares will be exchanged for shares of Microsoft common stock and one-half of the Yahoo! common shares will be converted into the right to receive cash. Our proposal is not subject to any financing condition.

Our proposal represents a 62% premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock of $19.18 on January 31, 2008. The implied premium for the operating assets of the company clearly is considerably greater when adjusted for the minority, non-controlled assets and cash. By whatever financial measure you use - EBITDA, free cash flow, operating cash flow, net income, or analyst target prices - this proposal represents a compelling value realization event for your shareholders.

We believe that Microsoft common stock represents a very attractive investment opportunity for Yahoo!'s shareholders. Microsoft has generated revenue growth of 15%, earnings growth of 26%, and a return on equity of 35% on average for the last three years. Microsoft's share price has generated shareholder returns of 8% during the last one year period and 28% during the last three year period, significantly outperforming the S&P 500. It is our view that Microsoft has significant potential upside given the continued solid growth in our core businesses, the recent launch of Windows Vista, and other strategic initiatives.

Microsoft's consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. In late 2006 and early 2007, we jointly explored a broad range of ways in which our two companies might work together. These discussions were based on a vision that the online businesses of Microsoft and Yahoo! should be aligned in some way to create a more effective competitor in the online marketplace. We discussed a number of alternatives ranging from commercial partnerships to a merger proposal, which you rejected. While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! that we are proposing.

In February 2007, I received a letter from your Chairman indicating the view of the Yahoo! Board that "now is not the right time from the perspective of our shareholders to enter into discussions regarding an acquisition transaction." According to that letter, the principal reason for this view was the Yahoo! Board's confidence in the "potential upside" if management successfully executed on a reformulated strategy based on certain operational initiatives, such as Project Panama, and a significant organizational realignment. A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved.

While online advertising growth continues, there are significant benefits of scale in advertising platform economics, in capital costs for search index build-out, and in research and development, making this a time of industry consolidation and convergence. Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers. Synergies of this combination fall into four areas:

-- Scale economics: This combination enables synergies related to scale
     economics of the advertising platform where today there is only one
     competitor at scale. This includes synergies across both search and
     non-search related advertising that will strengthen the value
     proposition to both advertisers and publishers. Additionally, the
     combination allows us to consolidate capital spending.
-- Expanded R&D capacity: The combined talent of our engineering
     resources can be focused on R&D priorities such as a single search
     index and single advertising platform. Together we can unleash new
     levels of innovation, delivering enhanced user experiences,
     breakthroughs in search, and new advertising platform capabilities.
     Many of these breakthroughs are a function of an engineering scale that
     today neither of our companies has on its own.
-- Operational efficiencies: Eliminating redundant infrastructure and
     duplicative operating costs will improve the financial performance of
     the combined entity.
-- Emerging user experiences: Our combined ability to focus engineering
     resources that drive innovation in emerging scenarios such as video,
     mobile services, online commerce, social media, and social platforms is
     greatly enhanced.

We would value the opportunity to further discuss with you how to optimize the integration of our respective businesses to create a leading global technology company with exceptional display and search advertising capabilities. You should also be aware that we intend to offer significant retention packages to your engineers, key leaders and employees across all disciplines.

We have dedicated considerable time and resources to an analysis of a potential transaction and are confident that the combination will receive all necessary regulatory approvals. We look forward to discussing this with you, and both our internal legal team and outside counsel are available to meet with your counsel at their earliest convenience.

Our proposal is subject to the negotiation of a definitive merger agreement and our having the opportunity to conduct certain limited and confirmatory due diligence. In addition, because a portion of the aggregate merger consideration would consist of Microsoft common stock, we would provide Yahoo! the opportunity to conduct appropriate limited due diligence with respect to Microsoft. We are prepared to deliver a draft merger agreement to you and begin discussions immediately.

In light of the significance of this proposal to your shareholders and ours, as well as the potential for selective disclosures, our intention is to publicly release the text of this letter tomorrow morning.

Due to the importance of these discussions and the value represented by our proposal, we expect the Yahoo! Board to engage in a full review of our proposal. My leadership team and I would be happy to make ourselves available to meet with you and your Board at your earliest convenience. Depending on the nature of your response, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!'s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.

We believe this proposal represents a unique opportunity to create significant value for Yahoo!'s shareholders and employees, and the combined company will be better positioned to provide an enhanced value proposition to users and advertisers. We hope that you and your Board share our enthusiasm, and we look forward to a prompt and favorable reply.

Sincerely yours,

/s/ Steven A. Ballmer
Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft will host an analyst/investor conference call at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time/5:30 a.m. Pacific Time to discuss today's announcement. If you want to participate, you may do so by dialing (866) 610-1072 or (706) 634-9230 (toll/international); the conference ID number is 33470390. Please dial in at least 20 minutes in advance of the call. Accompanying slides and the conference call Webcast will be available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass. Playback of the conference call and the webcast will be available for replay through the close of business on Feb. 5, 2008. The replay can be accessed by dialing (800) 642-1687 or (706) 645-9291 (toll/international); the conference ID number is 33470390.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval. In connection with the proposed transaction, Microsoft Corp. plans to file with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-4 containing a proxy statement/prospectus and other documents regarding the proposed transaction. The definitive proxy statement/prospectus will be mailed to shareholders of Yahoo! Inc. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF YAHOO! INC. ARE URGED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY IN THEIR ENTIRETY WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION.

Investors and security holders will be able to obtain free copies of the registration statement and the proxy statement/prospectus (when available) and other documents filed with the SEC by Microsoft Corp. through the Web site maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov/. Free copies of the registration statement and the proxy statement/prospectus (when available) and other documents filed with the SEC can also be obtained by directing a request to Investor Relations Department, Microsoft Corp., One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Wash. 98052-6399.

Microsoft Corp. and its directors and executive officers and other persons may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in respect of the proposed transaction. Information regarding Microsoft Corp.'s directors and executive officers is available in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2007, which was filed with the SEC on Aug. 8, 2007, and its proxy statement for its 2007 annual meeting of shareholders, which was filed with the SEC on Sept. 29, 2007. Other information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be contained in the proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC when they become available.

Statements in this release that are "forward-looking statements" are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors such as Microsoft Corp.'s ability to achieve the synergies and value creation contemplated by the proposed transaction, Microsoft Corp.'s ability to promptly and effectively integrate the businesses of Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp., the timing to consummate the proposed transaction and any necessary actions to obtain required regulatory approvals, and the diversion of management time on transaction-related issues. For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Microsoft Corp.'s business, please refer to the "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Risk Factors" sections of Microsoft Corp.'s SEC filings, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained by contacting Microsoft Corp.'s Investor Relations department at (800) 285-7772 or at Microsoft Corp.'s Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/msft.

All information in this communication is as of Feb. 1, 2008. Microsoft Corp. undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the company's expectations.

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/28.html