Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) bought Kelkoo on March 26, 2004 for $579 million. Kelkoo is a France-based shopping price comparison engine. As Yahoo! begins to transition into a new phase, they will need some capital to get back onto their feet. Therefore Yahoo! has now sold Kelkoo to a private equity firm called Jamplant Ltd.

Although the selling price is not known, one of TechCrunch’s sources believes the price is less than $125 million. Pierre Chappaz, the former CEO of Kelkoo announced the sale on his blog.

Yahoo!’s stock price has gone south since Steve Ballmer stated that Microsoft is still no longer interested in acquiring the search engine company as a whole even though Jerry Yang stepped down from the CEO position.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has struck a deal with T-Mobile USA for OneSearch to become the preferred search engine.  OneSearch is Yahoo!’s mobile browser and this is the second telecomm deal that Yahoo! has one.  AT&T brought Yahoo! on board as their partner for the default search engine for new customers.

Google has a dela with Sprint Nextel.  Verizon is currently in talks with both Microsoft and Google.  Between T-Mobile and AT&T, Yahoo! will be able to reach 105 million subscribers in the U.S.  This deal does not affect the T-Mobile partnership with Google for the G1 smartphone.  T-Mobile and Yahoo! will share advertising revenue generated by the partnership.

Microsoft and Google’s battle for the Verizon Wireless deal is rumored to be worth about $550-$650 million.

DivX, Inc. (NASDAQ:DIVX) is suing Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) over a canceled advertising deal.  Yahoo! planned on signing a two year partnership with DivX, but changed their mind.  This directly affected the financial results that DivX had for 2008 and 2009.

DivX filed the lawsuit at the California Superior Court in Santa Clara, Calif.

“Yahoo’s decision to breach is unjustified given DivX’s fulfillment of its obligations under the agreement,” stated DivX CEO Kevin Hell.

The partnership was decided upon in September 2007.  Yahoo! wanted to settle with DivX out of court to come up with a solution.  But it never came into fruition.

“Yahoo is disappointed with DivX’s decision to pursue legal action rather than renegotiate this agreement,” stated a Yahoo! spokesman. “We intend to vigorously defend ourselves in court, but will reserve further comment until we’ve had an opportunity to review the suit,” the Yahoo spokesman added.

DivX adjusted their 2008 earnings to about $90-$92 million from a previous forecast of $95-$97 million.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has announced today that Jerry Yang will be stepping down as CEO.  Co-founder Yang will be returning to his previous role on the Board as Chief Yahoo!  Yang stepped into the CEO role in June 2007 after Terry Semel resigned.

“From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensable to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise,” stated Jerry Yang. “When the Board asked me to become CEO and lead the transformation of the Company, I did so because it was important to re-envision the business for a different era to drive more effective growth. Having set Yahoo! on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo! realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”

Choosing the next CEO Yahoo! will be very important for the Board.  The last two CEOs have received a great amount of disapproval.  Yang for not accepting the Microsoft offer and Semel for allowing Google to takeover search market share. Before Semel, Tim Koogle was CEO.  Koogle is now a real estate expert with a focus on Mexican properties.

Whoever the next CEO will be dealing with a very complicated company and I wish Yahoo! luck.

Yahoo spent around $570k last quarter on lobbying. The company lobbied the protection of children from online predators, phishing scams, and intellectual property issues such as patent reform.

In other Yahoo news, the company’s owes $73 million to advisers on the Microsoft / Google / Icahn mess.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has officially decided not to get into the advertising partnership with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO).  Both companies decided to delay the implementation of the deal to see if regulators would approve it.  Due to pressure, regulators did not approve of the deal.  It was still being reviewed and it was even rumored that both companies sent a revised proposal that implied Yahoo! was willing to cap how much revenue they made from the partnership.

David Drummond, SVP of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer at Google made the following statement on the Google Blog.

However, after four months of review, including discussions of various possible changes to the agreement, it’s clear that government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement. Pressing ahead risked not only a protracted legal battle but also damage to relationships with valued partners. That wouldn’t have been in the long-term interests of Google or our users, so we have decided to end the agreement.

We’re of course disappointed that this deal won’t be moving ahead. But we’re not going to let the prospect of a lengthy legal battle distract us from our core mission. That would be like trying to drive down the road of innovation with the parking brake on. Google’s continued success depends on staying focused on what we do best: creating useful products for our users and partners.

This is the first time that Google has backed out of a deal that would extend their advertising reach, stated Rebecca Arbogast, analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co.

What Will This Do To Yahoo!?
Yahoo! has been put in a very difficult position.  Yahoo! refused the acquisition offer from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and now Google has turned their back on them.  What’s left to do?  Perhaps the talks between Yahoo! and AOL will intensify.

Yahoo! won’t be ready to launch their advertising platform, APT for all publishers until early 2009.  AOL has a solid advertising subsidiary called Platform-A.  This could be a good fit considering that Yahoo!’s competitors Google and Microsoft recently made major advertising acquisitions (aQuantive and DoubleClick) with a combined value of about $9.1 billion.

Yahoo! sent out a press release a few minutes ago regarding the deal cancellation.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) was rumored to be dropping the advertising deal altogether, but today’s news says otherwise.  The two search engine companies have submitted a revised agreement to the Justice Department that indicates Yahoo! would limit the revenue earned by the advertising partnership.  The deal also caps the number of years that the two companies would partner with each other.

Yahoo! is depending heavily on the Justice Department’s approval of the deal.  Yahoo! turned down a $47 billion acquisition check from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to accept the Google advertising partnership deal.  Carl Icahn, a board member and investor in Yahoo! reiterated his stance on the importance of working out a deal with Microsoft on CNBC this past Monday.

Yahoo! recently hired Jeff Dossett, former Executive Producer & General Manager at MSN media network to run their own flagship sites Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, and Yahoo! Sports.  

Another reason why this deal is important is because Yahoo! recently announced they are slashing 10% of their workforce.  If the Google deal does not go through, that would not be good for company morale.

The chances of the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) advertising partnership happening is getting slimmer.  The two search engine companies have not be able to reach any sort of agreement with the Justice Department.  The two companies are rumored to just walk away from the deal altogether.  If companies and the Justice Department are able to come up with a solution, then it will probably take place sometime in the middle of next week.

The partnership was officially announced in June.  The partnership was originally devised as a way to downplay the acquisition offer made by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).

If the deal did take place, then Google would have been able to help Yahoo! generate millions of dollars by providing them with advertising inventory.  But if the deal doesn’t happen, Yahoo! shareholders will be upset and the pressure to have Jerry Yang removed from the CEO spot may increase.  His role as CEO has been highly questioned during the August 1st shareholder meeting.

AOL and Yahoo! are currently rumored to be in talks of a merger.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) subsidiary AOL are currently in the due diligence stages for what could happen as a merger.  Both companies are finding out how much in costs they can save and how much money they can make together.

The talks are focused on how to merge AOL’s content and advertising business into Yahoo!  The AOL and Yahoo! merger talks were one of the possible alternatives to being acquired by Microsoft.  These discussions are taking place as Yahoo!’s advertising outsourcing deal with Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is going through the regulatory process.

If the merger deal goes through, Time Warner would get stake in the combined company.  AOL and Yahoo! are being very cautious with the move because the deal carries “a lot of risk.”  Yahoo! would also gain control of AOL’s many assets.

AOL owns companies like Netscape, Moviefone, Spinner.com, Nullsoft, Quack.com, MapQuest, Advertising.com, Weblogs Inc., Truveo, MusicNow,  Userplane, GameDaily, Relegence, Third Screen Media, AdTech, Tacoda, Quigo, buy.at, Bebo, and Sphere.