Just saw this… According to the Wall Street Journal:

After a series of meetings over the past week, Yahoo’s board determined that the $31 per share offer “massively undervalues” Yahoo [...] The decision to reject the offer signals that Yahoo’s board is digging in its heels for what could be a long takeover battle. The company is unlikely to consider any offer below $40 per share [...] It’s unclear whether Microsoft would be willing to pay such a premium, which would increase the value of its original cash and stock bid by more than $12 billion. [...] Yahoo’s board appears to be betting that Microsoft doesn’t want to “go hostile” and try to acquire the company against the wishes of management and the board.

Oh, things are hotting up alright…

[edit]: More here. Currently both MS and Yahoo! are refusing to comment on this report…

● Via Damien: As heard first via various twitterings, C|Net’s News.com are now reporting that Microsoft have bid $44.6 billion for Yahoo!. Will be interesting if the deal goes through – although, as ChinaView asks – how much will a Microsoft-Yahoo marriage change Cyberspace?…


● Bock the Robber wasn’t impressed by the Irish rugby teams performance (and, in fairness… who was?) – but the picture he’s using is from the front page of the Irish Times – taken at the Ireland Vs Italy Womens Six Nations match – where Ireland won by a much more impressive score of 19 – 0. Leave it to the ladies, eh?
● Primal Sneeze isn’t a Ray D’Arcy fan, (they never really liked him on the boards either) … and he seems to think that D’Arcy’s interview with me back in August about ShiteDrivers.com was the final straw in the Today FM DJ’s decline. Frankly, I do enjoy D’Arcy’s show – but it’s not as good as it used to be, and I don’t really think he deserves to win Best Irish DJ (it would be his 4th year running) at the Meteor Awards this year.
● Speaking of the Meteors, you can now vote for the 2FM Hope for 2008 award – my recommendation is Owen Brady. We featured him on the show recently.
Oh and speaking of my show, we had the Top Ten Movie Soundtracks on Friday, and we talked (briefly) about the new Rambo movie (which Damien didn’t like) and the incredible body count in it compared to the previous 3 films!
● OH!… and speaking of ShiteDrivers.com (mentioned it when talking about D’Arcy above, .. remember?) – the site has been “longlisted” for four awards in the Irish Blog Awards which take place in Dublin on March 1st. I’ll be there!
● Finally… I’ve read two of these books cover to cover and I want more. Thankfully there’s OverheardInDublin.com… ahhhh… those Dubs, eh? I particularly like this one:

Was listning to 2fm a few weeks ago in the afternoon and a female dj(dont know her name) was doing a request show,a mother was on playing a request for one of her kids that was sick with the flu and she was saying that she was hoping that none of the other kids would pick up the same illness,”touch wood” the dj replies “dont worry I have my 2 hands firmly on wood as we speak”..

(extra: see also it’s sort-of “bigger” brother, OverheardInIreland.ie – I still prefer OverheardInDublin, to be honest…)

One month later and Blogorrah hasn’t returned as promised. Is anyone really that bothered any more? Is the ‘Bring Back Blogorrah’ campaign dead in the proverbial water?

Damien unearthed a 419 scammer who’s advertising in an Irish newspaper. The cheeky feckers. Also, he’s offering to do free P.R. for my new site ShiteDrivers.com – which, itself, has seen a small accelleration in signups and posts exposing poor driving lately. Cormac Donncha also gave the site a mention on his InPhotos site, so yeah – as it’s getting a bit more exposure, I must have a look at tidying up the layout and design and jazzing it up a bit with some new features. Anyone any good at logo design like to offer their talents for a new ShiteDrivers(.com) logo?

Microsoft have launched a "snazzy" new search engine called ‘Tafiti’ – it runs on their new Flash-rival called ‘Silverlight’ (and you’ll have to install it to use the site). Interestingly, Microsoft don’t own Silverlight.com – that actually links to someones .mac site. Oh well… Back to Tafiti (where did that name come from???) – While it looks pretty, it’s really not so hot when it comes to its intended function – searching. If you like a load of bells and whistles when you search and don’t mind disabling your pop-up blocker so that search results can launch in new Windows, go for it… if not, stick with Google or Yahoo!.

I’ve been playing with my new Nokia 6288 on 3 for a week or so now and I’ll be getting a new Sony Ericsson K800i from the network (yes, I work for them) next week some time… which is nice. There are a few handy places to get free applications and games for these phones on the web including GetJar.com, About.com and FreeDownloadsCenter.com.

Speaking of phones… the American’s are quite some way behind us aren’t they? Sure, the phone they all want (which is supposedly launching here "soon") doesn’t even have 3G/HSDPA. Mind you, many Americans are still only getting used to text messaging – with some paying more attention to the task than they really should…!

Finally – I know I was being a bit picky (no, not pedantic) originally I guess – but I noticed yesterday that our local Virgin Megastore finally fixed the ironic spelling error on their sign just in time for a brain training "expo" where they had loads of people playing the game on the Nintendo DS to see who had the best brains in Dundalk. Er… ah… no comment…

My filler “Live Request Jukebox” show has been cancelled after only one week to give way for a new programme on Dundalk FM. Am I bothered…? Not at all… The Wall of Sound returns soon!

Jim Carrey on Letterman taking the piss out of David Caruso (with help from Paul Schaffer and band doing a half decent impresion of the Who). Easily done, in fairness.

I should have, – but I couldn’t have put it better myself. Well said, Stephen.

Looking for a new domain name? New web site Bust a Name cleverly suggests available domain names based on different combinations of user-input keywords. Well worth a try.

Instantly improve your vision – using your fist! (Thanks to HackerZen.com)

Both Yahoo! and Google have been on a bit of a spending splurge lately, buying lots of companies. SEO by the Sea gives us a comprehensive list with some insight into the purchases and Google themselves.

The iPhone may only be out just over a week but people are already using it for exactly what you’d expect people to use it for… searching for porn!

[EDIT:] Update on last Crunchy Links, my blog is now rated “R” for Restricted by Mingle². Well, hurrah! \o/

Shameless plug for my employers: They may not have announced it on their web site yet, but 3, the mobile phone company, are now providing LIVE streaming content on all their handsets from Setanta Sports – including live GAA action, UK Racing, Golf and, in August, LIVE Premiership matches! We were watching hurling live on two mobile phones yesterday (a Sony Ericsson K800i and a *cough* Motorola V3xx) and it was (almost) crystal clear! All of this and it’s only 50c a day to watch… Good work, mobile network fellahs!

Car stereos have indeed come a long way! Good work, archive trawling fellahs!

Acquisitions, acquisitions… First Microsoft wanted to buy Yahoo!, now Rupert Murdoch wants a chunk of the search engine giant and he’s prepared to give up MySpace and possibly IGN for it! Oh and Yahoo! is buying Rivals.com, the big-ass subscription-based sports site. Good work, company buying fellahs!

Google has launched localised versions of YouTube for Europe, but as Damien reports, it’s not as Irish as it could be – they even got the flag wrong! Poor work, video streaming fellahs!

Just saw the Banana Phone ring tone ad on telly last night (yes, during Big Brother…), and thought I’d remind people that, rather than texting a premium rate number to get the tone (if you REALLY want to), you can download it for free here on my blog. Good work… eh… me!

Radio DJ, Rick O’Shea wants everyone to vote for his friend John Williams in the upcoming Photoblog Awards. You can register to vote here and vote for John here. I’m surprised Donncha O’Caoimh’s photo blog In Photos.org hasn’t been nominated, to be honest… Good work, photo taking fellahs!

Finally… The dramatic chipmunk – best 5 second video clip on the Internet ever? You decide! Good work, … you!