Fred Destin

Seems like Techcrunch and Wall Street Journal get to beat everybody else on the really BIG news.  TC/WSJ have forced Yahoo to confirm in a press release that it had ended talks with Microsoft today for any kind of deal, with Techcrunch leading on an expected Yahoo / Google search tie-up and other rumours (such as senior execs leaving).  But … markets don’t move for a full 3.5 hours…

A deal with Google on search is now widely expected.  Techcrunch’s Mike A himself broke that one but it seems his timing was ambitious (he was claiming a big announcement on this at 1.30 PST — none so far).  Probably trying a touch too hard to outdo the old media folks he ?

Two things are for sure:

• Mr Icahn must have used some flowery language at around 10.38AM today
• The anti-G alliance just won ~ 120 million new converts

What’s also interesting to me here is the timelag between the rumour release and the stock impact.  It really take a company press release and a Reuters hit to make the markets move. 

• 10:37AM PST TechC
• 11.38AM PST PaidContent
• 14:05 Full story on Reuters
• Stock really goes down at around 2PM

Why ?  Simple.  Credibility !  Question: can someone tell me how often breaking news from Mike A are actually on or directionally correct ?  Can you derive a public market informational advantage from reading Mike A ?  Look at the volumes traded below: does not like a serious seller even took a risk.