Fortune is reporting that despite Microsoft's decision to withdraw its $47.5 billion buyout bid for Yahoo - and the subsequent 20% drop in the Internet company's stock price on Monday - many Yahoo employees say not much has changed for them; they also say they plan on staying put, at least for now.

Several anonymous employees told the magazine that they have no plans to leave. Meanwhile, Boris Epstein, CEO of headhunter firm Binc, said in the article he's made a big push to recruit Yahoo engineers this week, but that most of the people he's talked to aren't budging.

"Many of them are telling me, 'no way, I'm not going anywhere right now,' " Epstein said. "Some people are going to want to stay put until something shakes out—if Microsoft makes another move there could be severance or retention packages to look forward to." Some employees said that they feel more loyal to the company, post-Microhoo.

Yahoo shareholders are so angry about the company's failure to cut a deal with Microsoft, that several said they would consider a proxy fight to oust CEO Jerry Yang along with Yahoo's entire board of directors—if it would bring Microsoft back to the table, according to a new report in the LA Times.

"People have talked about it, but nobody I know of has actually committed to doing it," one major shareholder said in the article. "It's daunting to pull it off in such a limited amount of time. And you don't know if Microsoft will be there."

The report said that on several large Yahoo shareholders have "burned up the phone lines" in a campaign to persuade Yahoo's independent board members to reconsider Microsoft's offer—and they also made overtures to Microsoft, which withdrew its sweetened $47.5-billion offer over the weekend.

Mobile content aggregator PlayPhone is buying London-based Pitch Entertainment Group as a quick way to expand globally. PlayPhone, based in San Jose, has a direct-to-consumer portal that sells content to mobile users in North America. Pitch has a similar business model, but it sells content to consumers in Europe and Brazil, VentureBeat reports.

PlayPhone CEO Ron Czerny told the site that the combined company will reach some 400 million users and hopes to drive that number up to a billion by year-end 2009.

The new, bigger PlayPhone will also have more than 60,000 branded mobile content items in its catalog.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Here's a theory about the whole Microhoogle thing, courtesy of Miguel Helft in today's New York Times, that lays the blame for the deal's collapse squarely on Google's front lawn. The backstory: Google's phenomenal rise caused Microsoft, the dominant technology company for more than two decades, to court Yahoo, he wrote. And Google's success also weakened Yahoo enough to give Microsoft the sense that it could buy the company at a good price.

"But Google played a part in killing the deal, for now at least, by acting more as friend than foe," Helft wrote. "It offered to let Yahoo use its more sophisticated search advertising technology, which by some estimates would have meant $1 billion in additional cash flow a year for Yahoo. The partnership would also bring Google more revenue... The prospect of such a partnership emboldened Yahoo's board to demand more money for the company and eventually caused Microsoft to rethink its strategy."

This would explain Ballmer's cryptic comment in his letter backing away from the deal, when he said that if Microsoft went ahead with a hostile takeover attempt, Yahoo would "take steps [in the interim] that would make Yahoo! undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft."

So Yahoo figured that they've already got something interesting in the can to bring in an extra $1 billion in revenue, so they felt confident they could jack up the price for their company. And that agreement would likely dissolve in the face of Microsoft's takeover, leaving Microsoft the prospect of then overpaying for Yahoo.

The Associated Press has officially launched its Mobile News Network that gives consumers access to local, national and international news from more than 100 publishers, Editor & Publisher reports.

Optimized for the iPhone, the mobile Web site can be accessed from the iPhone's Web application selection or viewed at www.apnews.com.

The Mobile News Network is the first product to come out of the AP's Digital Cooperative initiative, whose goal is to discover new digital distribution methods for content from AP members.

If you don't have an iPhone, don't fret; there are plans in place to offer versions of the site for additional advanced handsets and to add content from more sources.

Right now the question on Yahoo shareholder minds is: How far will the company's stock fall? Today Yahoo will be weighing its options after Microsoft's decision to withdraw its offer to buy Yahoo for $33 a share, or approximately $47.5 billion, The New York Times reports, saying that much will depend on Yahoo's next moves—which could include a partnership with its chief competitor, Google.

Technology and culture-wise, the Microhoo merger would likely have been a big mess. But Wall Street thought it was a strategic move, and virtually everyone had expected the merger to eventually go through.

"I don't believe that Jerry Yang as a founder, as someone who is emotionally attached to the company, was really looking out for my interest as a shareholder," said Darren Chervitz, co-manager of the Jacob Internet Fund, which owns about 150,000 shares of Yahoo, in the article. "I don't think anything Yahoo puts out there is going to be comparable with what Microsoft was offering."

While the entire board reportedly backed Mr. Yang's desire to reject Microsoft's offer, unhappiness with Mr. Yang could spread through the company's ranks, according to the article. "If the stock drops as far as I think it will, a lot of employees are going to be angry and many key employees could leave," said an anonymous Yahoo executive.

(Image credit: Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press)

They're splitting, but it's not what you may think. Time Warner said on Wednesday it plans to fully separate its cable services division, in a nod to Wall Street's demands to refocus as a pure media content company to boost an ailing stock price, according to Reuters.

That ailing stock price has a lot to do with AOL, which is the other part of Time Warner that analysts expect will split off from the mothership. It's also the subject of ongoing talks with rival Yahoo for an acquisition—one that could remake the Internet services landscape both on the desktop and on mobile devices.

The report said that AOL's quarterly revenue fell 23 percent to $1.1 billion due lower subscription revenue; meanwhile, online ad revenue rose only 1 percent. That's not a good sign and indicates that AOL's makeover plan isn't working. "Time Warner stock has lost a third of its value since the beginning of 2007, as AOL's future continued to worry investors, who have also sent shares in the entire media sector lower on fears of an advertising recession."

Microsoft this week indicated a willingness to raise its bid to as much as $33 per Yahoo share, The Wall Street Journal reports. This is an attempt to avoid the hostile takeover battle that CEO Steve Ballmer had threatened, according to unnamed sources close to the situation:

"Yet Mr. Ballmer in recent days has also appeared ready to walk away from Microsoft's offer altogether, say people familiar with the matter, as Yahoo and some of its shareholders seek significantly more money. Microsoft didn't reach a final decision following Wednesday's board meeting, according to people familiar with the matter. The directors gave Mr. Ballmer broad discretion to either go hostile or abandon the Yahoo pursuit, and the final outcome remained a toss-up in the wake of the meeting, the people say."

Meanwhile, Kara Swisher of AllThingsD wrote this morning that some of Microsoft's 79,000 employees are increasingly worried about the Yahoo takeover. "Reasons just keep piling on as to why we should not buy Yahoo," said one mid-level Microsoft employee Swisher spoke to. "It's a bet a lot of people are getting more nervous about," especially since Ballmer seems to think that Microsoft's future lies in that direction.

This could get ugly. The deadline that Microsoft set three weeks ago for Yahoo to accept its buyout offer passed this weekend without either side making a move, Fortune reports.

"The three-month-old battle between Microsoft and Yahoo could come to a head this week. Yahoo has repeatedly rebuffed Microsoft and demanded a higher price, a step that Ballmer has said he won't take."

The report said that while some analysts expect Microsoft to launch a hostile bid early this week, it's possible that CEO Steve Ballmer will follow through on his threat and walk away from the deal. "Our board and management team continue to be open to any and all alternatives, including a sale to Microsoft," Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said last week, when Yahoo reported first-quarter earnings that beat estimates.

The Money Channel and mobile portal provider AskMeNow have launched MoneyChannel Mobile. The new free, ad-supported site will give the Money Channel's audience easy access to business, stock market and economic news along with up-to-the-minute stock quotes and corporate announcements. Future versions of the site will add SMS queries, closing bell market messages and customizable stock quote alerts.

MoneyChannel Mobile is the first new publishing partner to take advantage of the AskMeNow 3.0 portal. The branded site is available through AskMeNow's distribution partners in the US and Canada.