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Someone just made a big bet on the Nov. $18 calls. That’s a maximum of 3 weeks. I suppose the deal will get done within Nov. I bought Dec. and Jan just to be safe.
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AOL Taps BofA To Advise On Potential Yahoo Merger -Reuters 37 minutes ago - Dow Jones News
Related Companies Symbol Last %Chg AOL 26.10 4.74% BAC 12.60 1.94% YHOO 16.44 1.08%
As of 4:00 PM ET 11/8/10
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
AOL Inc. (AOL) has hired Bank of America Corp. (BAC) to advise on strategic options including a potential Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) merger, Reuters reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. Allen & Co. LLC, a New York-based boutique investment bank that focuses on media and entertainment, is also advising AOL on its options, one of the sources told Reuters. BofA declined to comment, while Allen & Co. wasn't available for comment.
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Alibaba's Ma Approached on Yahoo! Bid By Joseph Woelfel 11/09/10 - 05:29 AM EST
Add CommentStock quotes in this article:YHOO HANGZHOU, Zhejiang, China (TheStreet) -- Alibaba's founder Jack Ma has been approached by a group of private-equity investors to gauge his interest in joining a bid to buy Yahoo!(YHOO_), Reuters reports, citing a source close to the situation. More on YHOO Stocks Choppy on Strong U.S. Dollar, Gold SoarsStock Wrap: The Real Story, November 8Yahoo, AOL Rumors: Morning Tech BytesMarket Activity Yahoo Inc.| YHOO UPAOL Inc| AOL UPMa has yet to make any decision about participating in the potential bid, said the source, Reuters reports. The source didn't unveil the names of any private-equity firms that may be involved. Alibaba is 40% held by Yahoo! and is China's biggest e-commerce company. The source told Reuters it was unclear if the bid attempt was a new one or one in which AOL(AOL_) was previously said to be looking at. It was reported Monday that AOL had hired financial advisers to explore strategic options for the company, one of which included a possible tie-up with Yahoo!. Yahoo! isn't in active discussions with financial or strategic partners, and isn't currently reviewing or eliciting any proposals, a source close to Yahoo! told Reuters. Alibaba spokesman John Spelich had no comment for Reuters. Yahoo! bought its stake in Alibaba.com in 2005 for about $1 billion. Alibaba said in September that talks to buy back shares from Yahoo! collapsed, notes Bloomberg. Alibaba said at the time it had "no intention" of raising the matter again. -- Written by Joseph Woelfel
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=DJ UPDATE: Alibaba.com Net Up 55%; Likely To Announce Acquisitions
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(Adds executive's comments on likely acquisitions, profit growth, value-added service revenue, membership pricing change.)
By Owen Fletcher
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
BEIJING (Dow Jones)--Chinese online business-to-business platform operator Alibaba.com Ltd. (ALBIY) said Thursday its third-quarter net profit rose 55% from a year earlier due to growth in subscribers and their use of value-added services.
Alibaba.com Chief Executive David Wei said in a teleconference he expects the company to continue to post solid net profit growth in the next few quarters, and it may announce new acquisitions "in the coming weeks."
The company is likely to announce an investment in China soon, he said.
However, he added small Chinese firms, which make up a large part of Alibaba.com's membership base, face growing pressure from an appreciating yuan and higher raw material and staffing costs. Such pressures could potentially eat into Alibaba's customer base.
Wei said the company expects China's export growth rate to slow in the coming quarters and to remain below recent levels in the next few years.
The listed unit of Alibaba Group said its net profit for the three months ended Sept. 30 was CNY366.1 million, up from CNY236.0 million a year earlier.
Revenue rose 40% to CNY1.45 billion from CNY1.03 billion.
"This quarter is again a solid quarter to demonstrate a strong profit pickup, and we are confident such trend will be continued in the following quarters," Wei said.
Alibaba.com added more than 38,000 paying members in the third quarter, bringing its total number of such members to 750,937 at the end of September, the company said.
Value-added services, such as extra advertising options, accounted for more than 25% of the revenue generated by Alibaba.com's international platform and more than 20% of the revenue from its domestic platform in the third quarter, Wei said.
Each was up more than five percentage points from a year earlier, he added, reflecting the company's growing reliance on value-added services to drive revenue growth.
Wei also said a pricing change on its international platform, due to take effect Jan. 1, won't start making a financial contribution until 2012, due to the company's accounting system.
Alibaba.com said in September it will replace the lowest-priced membership option for its international business-to-business platform with a higher-priced package that includes more functions, as part of its efforts to boost revenue from value-added services.
Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) owns a 39% stake in Alibaba Group.
In addition to Alibaba.com, Alibaba Group operates Taobao.com, an online shopping website; Alipay, an online payment service in China; and Yahoo China, a Chinese-language portal service.
Alibaba Group's relationship with Yahoo has grown more strained in recent months, with the companies publicly trading barbs. Alibaba said in September it had submitted an offer to Yahoo in February to buy pack part or all of Yahoo's stake, but the talks collapsed in June.
-By Owen Fletcher, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 8400 7702; owen.fletcher@dowjones.com
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