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Yahoo e-mailed its Yahoo! Music Store customers yesterday, telling them it will be closing for good - and the company will take its DRM license key servers offline on September 30, leaving users unable to access the songs they have purchased. Starting September 30 users will not be able to purchase songs from the Yahoo Music Unlimited Store.

Songs and albums that are purchased through Yahoo Music Unlimited Store are protected by a Digital Rights Management (DRM) system that requires a valid license key for playing them on the PC. The company will be taking off this license key servers offline on the same day the store shuts.

Once the Yahoo store goes down and the key servers go offline, existing tracks cannot be authorized to play on new computers. Instead, Yahoo recommends customers burn their files to CD and re-rip them onto their computer. (In the process, you’ll lose a bunch of blank CDs, not to mention sound quality.)

Earlier this year, a similar situation arose with MSN Music - although Microsoft has since relented and will keep the DRM authorization servers up and running through 2011.

The reaction of most music fans has been: "’Yahoo had an online music store?’"

If there’s one positive that can be drawn from this, it’s that all four major labels and most indies now sell DRM-free online.

In June, Google Sites retained its lead in the U.S. core search market capturing 61.5 percent of the searches conducted, down slightly from 61.8 percent in May. Google was followed by Yahoo! Sites (20.9 percent, up from 20.6 percent in May), Microsoft Sites (9.2 percent, up from 8.5 percent in May), Ask Network (4.3 percent), and AOL LLC (4.1 percent).
Americans conducted 11.5 billion searches at the core search engines, representing a 7-percent increase versus May. Google Sites handled more than 7 billion core searches (up 6 percent from May), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.4 billion (up 9 percent), and Microsoft Sites with more than 1 billion (up 15 percent).

Link: More At ComScore.

In a major step forward in search technology, Adobe is working with Google and Yahoo to make Flash files searchable in online search. The project will enable searches on Flash content to return text and links, which can then be indexed, and hence available in search results for the users. Content from a Flash application or even a game or advertisement will be available to search engines, reports InfoWorld. Pages containing a Flash .SWF file will be returned in a search. Google has already implemented this, while Yahoo, ever the laggard, will enable Flash search in a future version, whenever that comes out.
As for images and video, no luck yet. From Google’s own description: "If your Flash files only include images, we will not recognize or index any text that may appear in those images. Similarly, we do not generate any anchor text for Flash buttons which target some URL, but which have no associated text. Also note that we do not index FLV files, such as the videos that play on YouTube, because these files contain no text elements."

View: Washington Post

No sooner had the news that Microsoft and Yahoo! were no longer talking hit the web, the follow-up emerged. The much rumoured deal between Yahoo! and Google has been announced and sealed.
Expanding on the 2 week trial between the two companies (Yahoo! and Google), Google adverts will now appear next to Yahoo! search results in a system where both companies adverts will be put against each other in an auction style system. This makes the whole process easier to avoid anti-monopoly regulations.
The deal is expected to mean revenue at Yahoo! increases by $800 million eventually, with a cash flow increase of between $250 million and $450 million within the first 12 months.
Carl Ichan could not be reached for comment as to his position on this and how this would affect his (now seemingly impossible) plans to remove the board and sell Yahoo! to Microsoft.
Something tells me this still isn’t the end of this battle.

View: Yahoo!

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang pushed for an employee severance program that made it more expensive for Microsoft to engineer a takeover even after an outside consultant questioned the plan’s generous benefits, according to previously sealed documents in a shareholder lawsuit against Yahoo.

The details about the severance program and other information about Yahoo’s efforts to thwart Microsoft’s takeover bid became available Monday after a Delaware judge released redacted portions of a shareholder complaint filed last month after Microsoft withdrew an oral offer to buy Yahoo for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share.

Full article @ USATODAY

Microsoft Corp. directors failed to decide on the next step in the pursuit of Yahoo! Inc. yesterday, leaving open the debate over whether to walk away from the $44.6 billion bid or fight to replace the Internet company’s board.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer is undecided on what to do, and his allies don’t know whether he will give up or mount a hostile takeover, the Wall Street Journal reported last night on its Web site, citing people familiar with the matter.
Microsoft examined a price of $32 to $33 a share in recent days, more than the initial $31 cash-and-stock bid, the newspaper said. Raising the offer would be one way for Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, to clinch a friendly deal with Yahoo or make it easier to win a proxy fight to oust the board.

Link: Read More @ Bloomberg

Google and Yahoo are reportedly moving closer to striking an advertising deal that could foil Microsoft’s takeover bid. The proposal would see Yahoo hand over its search advertising operation to Google in a deal that could yield Yahoo as much as $1bn in new revenues, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal.
The publication cited anonymous sources within Yahoo as saying that the outsourcing deal had been granted initial approval and will move forward. The arrangement would give Yahoo another weapon in its effort to ward off a takeover attempt by Microsoft. The Redmond giant has been attempting to push Yahoo’s board to accept its $42bn proposal since February.

View: The full story @ vnunet

Microsoft Corp is evaluating its bid for Yahoo Inc because the Internet company may have lost value since Microsoft made its offer, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The news, sent Yahoo shares down more than 5 percent in extended trade.
After weeks of silence, recent comments from various sources to journalists suggest the software maker is hardening its stance and pushing Yahoo for action. The sources told Reuters that Yahoo has lost key personnel, making the company less valuable, while generous severance packages it handed out to executives and full-time employees in the case of a takeover have made it more expensive.

Link: Reuters

Yahoo Inc said on Tuesday that it supports a program by archrival Google Inc to develop applications for social networks and will help create a joint foundation to keep it alive.
Google launched its OpenSocial network in November to lure developers already creating popular Web applications on social networks like Facebook.
Yahoo, Google and News Corp-owned MySpace said on Tuesday they will create the OpenSocial Foundation to maintain a neutral, community-governed forum for developing applications. It will be set up as a non-profit entity, with assets to be assigned to the new organization by July 1.

View: Reuters

Citigroup said it is likely Microsoft Corp will raise its $31-per-share offer for Yahoo and upgraded Yahoo shares to “buy” from “hold.”
The brokerage also raised its price target on Yahoo’s stock to $34 from $31, saying it believed Microsoft remained committed to its offer and “is capable of and willing to” increase that bid to conclude the deal.
“While we continue to see no other competing bidders, we believe Yahoo is aggressively pursuing strategic alternatives,” analyst Mark Mahaney said in a note to clients.
One possibility is a tie-up with Time Warner, whereby Time Warner would contribute its online content assets to Yahoo in exchange for a stake, the analyst said.
“We believe this could serve as a forcing function to a higher Microsoft bid.”

View: Reuters