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May 16, 2008
Icahn Pesters Yahoo Board
Icahn Wants Microsoft to Reconsider Yahoo Bid, CNET and CW are CBS Busts, HBO's Newest Dark Comedy and more news
By Cable 360 Staff
News Briefing for Friday, May 16, 2008
The Rays, Diamondbacks, Astros, Marlins and Cubs have the best records in baseball on May 16. Who’d a thunk it? Good day.
Billionaire investor and corporate pest Carl Icahn filed papers to unseat Yahoo’s board, claiming it acted irrationally on the Microsoft deal. Icahn’s move, made after he purchased 10 million Yahoo shares, is designed to reignite Microsoft’s interest in Yahoo. The Yahoo board returned serve, saying Icahn doesn’t understand the facts surrounding Microsoft’s offer. The stage is set for a showdown, The Journal says. [WSJ]
Heard on the Street douses the acquisition of CNET by CBS, saying there are no synergies and that Les Moonves made the move to bolster a falling share price with Internet buzz. The piece also notes the acquisition of CSTV didn’t work. [WSJ]
Man, The Journal woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Besides the above piece, it blasts CBS again and Time Warner for their CW venture, saying it might be on its last legs. The network has lost more than WWE wrestling. It’s lost some 28% of its target audience of 18 to 34 year olds this season and ratings during the May sweeps are off about 22%. Apparently the kids are abandoning the CW for the Internet, the Journal says. [WSJ]
The Sportsman Channel parent InterMedia Outdoors said late Thursday it chose not to renew programming agreements with The Outdoor Channel. Instead it will shift its shows to The Sportsman Channel. “IMO will also increase its commitment of resources to TSC, integrating new and upgraded programming and content from IMO’s vast market-leading properties, which extend across print, television, radio and online mediums,” it said in a statement.
After the massive drug bust on the campus of San Diego State U, the school and prominent alums have launched a PR campaign to scrub the school’s image. A full-page ad in today’s SD Union-Tribune (cost $19K) is sponsored in part by Cox Business, The L.A. Times reports. [LAT]
Briefly Noted
Kelly Preston will star in HBO’s dark (what else?) comedy pilot Suburban Shootout as a woman who leaves the city for suburbia only to find gangs of housewives fighting to control the town, The Hollywood Reporter says. [THR]
ESPN-ABC basketball analyst Doris Burke gets a nice review from The Times’ Richard Sandomir. [NYT]
Gina Bellafante calls Discovery’s Man vs. Wild “the most elitist of television’s nature-combat shows.” [NYT]
Got a tip? Contact sgoldstein@accessintel.com and sarenstein@accessintel.com
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