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From: Don Green	5/6/2008 10:47:53 PM
	of 18412

Bill Miller wants Yahoo buyback Monday’s selloff in Yahoo (YHOO) is creating more pain for value manager Bill Miller. Miller is chief investment officer at Legg Mason Capital Management, which at Dec. 31 was Yahoo’s second-biggest shareholder, with a 6.9% stake, according to Lionshares.com. Yahoo had been one of the standout performers in Miller’s Legg Mason Value Trust, which lost 20% of its value in the first quarter as big bets on beaten-down financial stocks such as Bear Stearns (BSC) went sour. But Monday’s 14% decline in Yahoo takes the stock about half the way back to where it was trading before Microsoft (MSFT) unveiled its $31-a-share bid on Feb. 1. Should they stick, Monday’s declines will reduce the fund’s gains in Yahoo accordingly. Miller indicates in an interview with The New York Times that he’s surprised by Microsoft’s decision to walk away from Yahoo, and eager to see Yahoo do something to justify shareholders’ patience. He wants to see CEO Jerry Yang turn some of Yahoo’s cash holdings toward a share buyback, he says in the interview. “It would be almost incoherent not to do so,” Miller said. “You can’t maintain that $33 undervalues your company, have your stock trade below that, and not buy back stock.” Despite the Yahoo selloff and Monday’s decline in another big Legg Mason holding, Countrywide (CFC), Miller’s doing better in the second quarter. He noted two weeks ago in his first-quarter letter to Value Trust shareholders that the fund was ahead of the S&P, and a look at Legg Mason’s biggest holdings as of March 31 shows that only two of his top 10 stocks - UnitedHealth (UNH) and General Electric (GE) - are down this quarter. “I think we will do better from here on,” Miller wrote on April 23, “and that by far the worst is behind us.” So far, so good.

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To: agent who wrote (16002)	5/6/2008 11:05:46 PM
From: MathProf	of 18412

Agent, no, Ballmer doesn't need to go. I second 2250's motion. The article you posted looks to me to be made up out of thin air, just to post something which has some zing. More real is this, previously posted, but called for again. "Attacks on Microsoft reveal a fundamental ignorance of what's powering the behemoth's growth trajectory." and "Those who sneer at Ballmer's supposed ineptitude or, as Wired puts it, "mismanagement," are simply engaging in speculation and armchair quarterbacking. They also show a poor understanding of internal dynamics at Microsoft." from money.cnn.com and, after the fact, we also have Investors, analysts laud Microsoft for 'moving on' marketwatch.com MP

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To: MathProf who wrote (15998)	5/7/2008 12:38:05 PM
From: MathProf	of 18412

Search: I put here, for anyone interested, an unoptimized sample of the zillions of things that come up when I look for information around the question of whether or not Live Search sucks relative to Google. I have found out that 1) Search is an infinite world, I'm never gonna get a true overview. Here are symbols of that: searchengineworld.com This is msft's in house search blog blogs.msdn.com 2) There do not seem to be "benchmark" tests to evaluate searches, not a surprise. 3) I did not find clear evidence that Google whomps Live, which is itself, to me, evidence to the contrary. Here are some items consistent with this view. This one is two (=infty in search) years old, but supports my hypothesis that Live is competitive: "All in all, Live.com’s effort is much more creative and head turning than what Google seems to be testing. Others might argue, of course, that Google’s clean interface has served them (and us) very well over the years and needs little, if any, tweaks at this time. As Live.com becomes more responsive and faster, it will be interesting to see if people drift away from Google Search and over to Live.com." from techcrunch.com "We have to say, Google is still tops in our book for default web searches -- but Live's Academic search is pretty awesome. It totally blows Google Scholar out of the water." from downloadsquad.com which contains the reader comments (check them all online) RP said... I use Google, but Live also wins on Maps, where they have a very impressive "BirdsEye View" feature. It blows away Google's street view. Eros said... Also Live image & video search are way batter then google's burnblue said... Google Image Search doesn't have a very refined or useful interface, so Live wins there. Just a couple days ago Live Maps helped me find what I needed (nearby restaurants) when Google wasn't being very helpful, so Microsoft wins there again. Even Ask.com's default search results page offers quicker answers than Google quite often for certain types of searches. So why is Google's search still cooler/easier? Is it purely habit? Check the reader comments from downloadsquad.com One more: Microsoft launches Live Search News, Google News killer? searchenginejournal.com It's a jungle, I know. :) MP

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