Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Forecasts, Rumors, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Merrill Lynch (MER), Urban Outfitters (URBN)

There are those who counterfeit money and those who make near-perfect knockoffs of 21 different Microsoft programs. Well, Microsoft Corp. (NADSAQ: MSFT) pushed an investigation through 22 countries and local law enforcement officials seized software, equipment and records, and made arrests. Microsoft estimates the retail value of the software the operation generated at $900 million.

The buzz over the $44.6 billion unsolicited bid Microsoft made for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is far from over with new items as well as speculations coming daily. The Financial Times reports that Softbank yesterday said it had no intention of selling its 41% stake in Yahoo Japan. Meanwhile, Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research speculated Thursday that Microsoft made the stunning proposal as a way to block a possible alliance between Yahoo and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).

The Wall Street Journal reports that federal prosecutors, looking into the mortgage businesses, have asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for information on Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER).

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Stocks Money News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.