Internet World

Roy Bostock / PR Newswire:
Icahn Sends Open Letter to Board of Directors of Yahoo!  —  SECURITY HOLDERS ARE ADVISED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT AND OTHER DOCUMENTS RELATED TO THE SOLICITATION OF PROXIES BY Carl C. Icahn AND HIS AFFILIATES FROM THE STOCKHOLDERS OF YAHOO! INC. FOR USE AT ITS ANNUAL MEETING …

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Ask.com Buying Lexico, Owner Of Dictionary.com  —  In a move that is interesting and perhaps even surprising for several reasons, IAC/Ask is buying Lexico Publishing Group, which owns and operates “iconic” domains Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com.

Lauren Pollock / Wall Street Journal:
Icahn Moves to Oust Yahoo Board  —  Billionaire Hopes to Revive a Deal with Microsoft  —  Billionaire investor Carl Icahn officially launched a proxy contest to unseat Yahoo Inc.'s board, writing in a letter to Chairman Roy Bostock “the board of directors of Yahoo has acted irrationally …

Jack Schofield / Guardian Unlimited:
Intel disclaims ZDNet report over larger iPhone or internet tablet  —  The Mac rumour sites have been buzzing about the idea of a MID (Mobile Internet Device) that could be considered an ultramobile Mac or large iPhone, especially since it was apparently “confirmed” by Hannes Schwaderer from Intel Germany.

Margaret Kane / CNET News.com:
CBS to buy CNET Networks  —  CBS has agreed to acquire CNET Networks in a deal valued at $1.8 billion, the companies said Thursday.  —  The purchase price comes to $11.50 per share, representing a 44 percent premium over Wednesday's closing price of $7.95.

PR Newswire:
CBS Corporation To Acquire CNET Networks, Inc.  —  CBS to Become a Top Ten U.S. Internet Company with Unparalleled Content and Reach, Boasting Approximately 200 Million Monthly Unique Users Worldwide  —  CNET Networks' CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, CNET News, UrbanBaby, BNET …

Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:
CBS Buying CNET For $1.8 Billion; CBS Predicts $1 Billion Interactive Revenues By 2010  —  CBS will pay $11.50 a share for CNET.  The all-cash deal represents a premium of 44% above the $7.95 CNET closed at yesterday.  Will it be enough to satisfy JANA et al?

Joseph Weisenthal / paidContent.org:
BREAKING: CBS Acquiring CNET For $1.8 Billion; 44.6 Percent Premium  —  CBS (NYSE: CBS) is acquiring CNET (NSDQ: CNET) for $1.8 billion in cash.  The purchase price comes to $11.50 per share, representing a 44.6 percent premium over last night's closing price of $7.95.

Mike Ricciuti / Webware.com:
Adobe set to test new Flash Player  —  Adobe on Thursday is expected to launch a beta test program for the latest version of its Flash Player software.  —  Flash Player 10, developed under the code name Astro, includes better support for 3D animation and video hardware acceleration, among other improvements.

Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
At The Churchill Club: The Top 10 Tech Trends  —  I'm at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose tonight, for the Churchill Club's annual Top 10 Tech Trends Dinner.  This is the club's 10th annual tech trend panel.  Making the picks:  — Steve Jurvetson, Draper Fisher Jurvetson.  — Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures.

John / Plaxo's Personal Card:
Comcast to Acquire Plaxo; Pulse to Become Central to Creating Unified “Social Media” Experience Across the Web, the TV (and more)  —  Big doings at Plaxo today!  We are really excited to announce some of the biggest news in the history of Plaxo: We have just signed an agreement** to be acquired by Comcast …

Wall Street Journal:
Icahn Will Launch Proxy Contest To Unseat Yahoo's Entire Board  —  Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is launching a proxy contest to unseat Yahoo Inc.'s board of directors, according to a person close to the matter — a move aimed at pressuring the Internet company to reach out to Microsoft Corp. to re-start sale discussions.

Ionut Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Spreadsheets Can Be Edited by Anyone  —  Google Spreadsheets added an option in the sharing dialog that allows anyone to view or edit the spreadsheet just by knowing the URL.  Until now, you had to send an invitation URL that contained a secret code and the people you invited had to login using a Google account.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: Comcast Bought Plaxo, Deal Closed Today  —  The rumors were accurate: Comcast will announce their acquisition of social contact list Plaxo today.  Financial terms are not being disclosed, but the purchase price is between $150 and $170 million.  Plaxo, which was founded in 2002 …

Mark Cuban / Blog Maverick:
Beating Google ?  —  Is there anything more fun than sitting around, growing your hair, drinking a Bud while listening to Jethro Tull and pondering how to change the balance of power in the search world and unseat Google ?  —  Better search ?  Too subjective.  Better monetization ?  After the fact.

John Biggs / CrunchGear:
Microsoft TouchWall can inexpensively turn any flat surface into a multi-touch display  —  Bill Gates will demo a new multi-touch computer and interface today called TouchWall at the Microsoft CEO Summit in Redmond.  —  TouchWall refers to the touch screen hardware setup itself …

Reuters:
Financier Icahn to run board slate for Yahoo: sources  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has elected to move ahead with plans to run a dissident board slate at Yahoo Inc (NasdaqGS:YHOO - News), sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Stealth Search Engine Blekko Gets Money From Marc Andreessen, SoftTech  —  2008 is the year of the search engine startup.  Hot on the heels of Powerset's partial launch earlier this week, stealth search engine Blekko (no logo, no website, just this and, apparently, some technology) raised a second round of financing.

Arn / MacRumors:
Intel Confirms Atom-based Larger iPhone (Mini-Tablet)?  —  According to ZDNet.de, Intel Germany CEO Hannes Schwaderer confirmed that Apple would be using the Intel Atom processor in a future version of the iPhone.  The new model will reportedly be a larger model with a larger display …

John Biggs / CrunchGear:
Microsoft TouchWall can inexpensively turn any flat surface into a multi-touch display  —  Bill Gates will demo a new multi-touch computer and interface today called TouchWall at the Microsoft CEO Summit in Redmond.  —  TouchWall refers to the touch screen hardware setup itself …