By Aaron Task in Investing, Internet, Newsmakers, Venture Capital, M and A, IPOs

Carl Icahn is going to move forward with a full proxy slate to replace Yahoo's board of directors, Reuters reports.

"Icahn, who has amassed a large stake in the Internet company, has lined up at least 12 potential board candidates," Reuters reports.

An article and commentary on the rumored Microsoft/Facebook merger talks.

After Microsoft withdrew its $33-a-share offer for Yahoo on Saturday, the question was how far Yahoo’s stock would drop. On Monday morning, the markets gave an initial answer: plenty.

Shortly after 10 a.m., Yahoo’s shares were off nearly 20%, at $23.92, down from the close of $28.67 on Friday — a day when the companies were said to be escalating their talks on a merger.

Microstrategy is a Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor, a very attractive business with high switching costs and low capital requirements. The company is in great shape today, but facing down 4 software giants is not an enviable position to be in.

Google is doing everything possible to make Microsofts job hard in this takeover. Google has agreed to help out Yahoo by participating in an unusual test that will gauge how much more advertising Google can sell for Yahoo!

The two-week experiment will be limited to ads posted alongside a small percentage of Yahoo's online search results in the United States.

In light of recent developments, Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) acquisition of Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) is all but inevitabie, Citigroup Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney wrote in a research note.

Wall Street advanced Monday following reports of potential corporate deals -- including news that Washington Mutual might get a $5 billion investment from private equity firms.

Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut's latest essay:

STP to $60 tomorrow? And boy, do we have the next Microsoft just for you!

According to The Wall Street Journal, News Corp. and Yahoo are in talks about combining MySpace and other News Corp.-owned online properties with Yahoo, in a move aimed at fending off Microsoft's takeover bid.

Earlier this morning, TechCrunch and Silicon Alley Insider weighed in.

Peter Kafka of Alley Insider breaks out the details:

Yahoo's Board of Directors will reject Microsoft's $31/share unsolicited bid according to a Wall Street Journal report citing unnamed sources. The decision is based on the belief the bid, which totals about $44.6 billion, "massively undervalues" Yahoo. The source said Yahoo is unlikely to consider offer less than $40/share, upping the purchase price by $12 billion.

By MIKE BARRIS
January 24, 2008 4:54 p.m.

Microsoft Corp. posted a 79% jump in quarterly net income from a year ago, when results were lowered by deferred sales of Windows Vista and Office. Quarterly revenue jumped 30% amid a surge in sales for the Windows operating system and holiday sales of the Xbox 360 videogame console.

According to a SeekingAlpha alert that I received, Microsoft said Tuesday that it will offer
$1.2 billion in cash for Fast Search and Transfer, a big player in the enterprise search market.

The move is sure to shake up the enterprise search market, which thus far has been dominated by a series of smaller players like FAST, Autonomy and Vivisimo. Google has made some inroads, but for

Trader Thoughts has eight internet/tech stock picks for 2008. Below is a brief summary, check out the link to read the full reasoning.

Akamai Technologies' (AKAM) Q3 indicated that the it has witnessed strong growth across all its core markets. AKAM reported a 45% YOY revenue growth to $161.2M, up 6% from the second quarter 2007.

Bruce Everiss, a veteran games industry marketer, shares his thoughts on what will happen in 2008 for the video gaming industry.