Microsoft

Yahoo's suitors: The good, the bad, the ugly

The question isn't who is exploring a Yahoo deal, it's who isn't. Here's a rundown of the latest rumors, and what does and doesn't work about their potential deals with the struggling company.

FORTUNE -- While Jerry Yang may not believe that Yahoo is on the auction block, the Wall Street Journal is full of reports that there are companies and private equity firms preparing to swallow up the battered, bruised, MORE

Can Silver Lake afford Yahoo?

Private equity is circling Yahoo. Does it have enough money?

There have been several reports this week that private equity firms Silver Lake Partners and Andreessen Horowitz may offer to buy Yahoo (YHOO), the oft-troubled Internet company that has been particularly rudderless since firing its CEO last week.

The two firms most recently teamed up to buy a majority stake in Skype from eBay (EBAY), and then quickly turned around and sold MORE

Skype: See no vesting, hear no vesting

Last week, Skype took heat for firing three executives just weeks before the company's $8.5 billion acquisition by Microsoft (MSFT) is expected to close. That was bad, albeit more optical than unethical. What we learned today, however, might have crossed that line.

Yee Lee, a former Skype employee, charged the company and its private equity investors with effectively cheating him out of vested options. Not in court papers, but via his blog.

Lee MORE

More cold water on Microsoft-Nokia 'deal'

Is Microsoft about to buy Nokia's mobile unit for $19 billion? No, according to a senior source familiar with the situation (not to mention public denials from Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and PR reps for both companies). On the other hand, maybe Microsoft should take a run at Twitter...

On Tuesday, a Russian tech blogger named Eldar Murtazin tweeted the following:

Murtazin has some credibility from past tweets about the Microsoft (MSFT) and Nokia (NOK) MORE

Einhorn and the underdogs

First Microsoft, now the Mets. The Greenlight Capital founder is supporting the teams that no one loves. 

FORTUNE -- This year, David Einhorn is throwing his money behind the underdog.

By the end of next month, the founder of hedge fund Greenlight Capital will trade $200 million for a minority stake in the New York Mets, the Major League Baseball team that lives in the shadow of the Yankees and that has missed MORE

Why was Skype's debt guaranteed?

Skype is being hailed as one of the decade's best private equity deals, following Microsoft's agreement to buy the company for $8.5 billion. But that doesn't mean that the PE firms didn't take an unnecessary risk.

It may sound counterintuitive, but private equity is all about debt. Private equity firms typically borrow more than 30% of a deal's value from banks, and then use that leverage to juice returns. And when MORE

Why the Skype investment worked

A Skype board member looks back at the last two years, and why the company today is worth $8.5 billion to Microsoft.

By Ben Horowitz, contributor

All these b$%^&#s and n@#$%s still hatin' I used to be ballin', but now I'm Bill Gate-in —Lil Wayne, Bill Gates Shortly after we started Andreessen Horowitz in mid-2009, we, along with our partners at Silver Lake Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, bought majority ownership of Skype MORE

Yes, Microsoft is buying Skype

So much for that Skype IPO.

Fortune has confirmed that Microsoft (MSFT) has agreed to buy the voice-over-Internet company for $8.5 billion, including the assumption of debt. Expect a formal announcement within the next hour.

There had been reports last week that Skype was in acquisition or partnership talks with both Microsoft and Facebook.

Skype will become a new business unit within Microsoft, to be run by current Skype CEO Tony Bates. He MORE

Let's give Steve Ballmer some credit

In October 2007, Microsoft (MSFT) agreed to buy a 1.6% stake in Facebook at a $15 billion valuation. Reaction from many quarters was withering:

PC Mag: "Whoever said the company is worth that much must be smoking something, including Microsoft, who paid millions for a tiny stake in it."
ValleyWag: "It's Microsoft executives, driven mad by Google and MySpace envy and determined not to miss out on the social-networking trend, who seem, well, MORE

Free money? Yes, but only for the biggest.

Many of America's top companies have taken advantage of record low interest rates, but access to cheap debt is still far from reach for the smaller guys.

Coca-Cola Co. (KO), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) are among those that have taken advantage of borrowing rates near 0%. Last week, Coca-Cola announced plans to sell $4.5 billion of bonds in its biggest offering ever -- it plans to use MORE