Mid-Week Market Rag: Do You Yahoo!?

It seems some advertisers don't anymore, but the Market Rag does.

This is the Mid-Week Market Rag for Oct. 18, 2006.

The rebuilding, or deconstruction, of AOL is well underway. After May's announcement that it would close its Jacksonville, Fla. facility, the dethroned Internet service pontiff is closing its Albuquerque call center, according to a report. The move is an attempt to raise and save money for the company and will result in the loss of 900 jobs. Time Warner stock responded with a one percent gain in trading today.

IBM IBM IBM: Making money is good for business. After a 50 percent rise in its third-quarter profits and a multi-percent increase in its stock price after the announcement. The veteran technology company beat Wall Street predictions last quarter, and they have reason to celebrate entering the holiday season.

Reuters reported today that Microsoft plans to spend $7.5 billion in research and development in 2007. This spending spree comes as a re-supply ship on the horizon for Microsoft's troops on the front lines of the bloody and brutal data and advertising war.

Microsoft is under pressure to show investors it can compete with Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. in the Internet search business.

Ballmer said for years Microsoft had faced no competition to recruit staff. "Finally, we have some competition (from Google) for talent," he said.

Microsoft is also confident that their Windows Vista operating system will fly with European anti-trust laws. On the eve of the release of its HD-DVD addition for the Xbox 360 and what will be an exciting holiday season from a gaming perspective, Microsoft is putting on its Sunday best.

The company posted a modest gain in trading today.

Finally today, Yahoo slid to a 1-year low today as poor 4th quarter forecasts and a continuous delay of the launch of their new revenue generating search/ad platform pushed their stock down almost five percent. They are giving all indications of a distant third place finish in the advertising wars, which may drop further as News Corp. gains speed and momentum.

The rest of 2006 will determine the fate of one of the web's originals.

The rest of the week is the time period you'll have to wait for the next Mid-Week Market Rag

Article Author: John Guilfoil

John Guilfoil is the editor of Blast Magazine. He is the former editor and founder of The Review Center. He currently maintains the blog PRrag: All the news that's fit to spin.

Visit John Guilfoil's author page — John Guilfoil's Blog