We weren’t expecting huge surprises during Yahoo’s earnings conference call, but CEO Jerry Yang was spectacularly vague about the Internet company’s plans vis-a-vis Microsoft or any other potential tie-ups — with Google, Time Warner’s AOL or News Corp — that Yahoo has been working on.

At the very start of the call, Yang essentially said “Don’t go there” to analysts and investors, reminding them about the purpose of the call.

“I’d like to remind you that today’s call is about our Q1 results, so please direct your questions to the quarter if possible,” Yang said.

When he touched on Microsoft — referring to it as three months of “uncertainty” — it was to reiterate the same line: “Our board and management are committed to choosing a path to maximize shareholder value.”

At the same time, Yang was bent on convincing analysts and investors that, despite an unchanged revenue forecast for the year, Yahoo deserves a higher price than the $43 billion cash-and-stock deal that Microsoft has offered. Is that because Yahoo piggybacked on gains from a stake in China’s Alibaba.com to a higher quarterly profit? Or because Yang said Yahoo’s “strategies and investments are beginning to pay off”?

Not that analysts or investors were convinced. Most continue to believe that Yahoo’s earnings are unlikely to put pressure on Microsoft on raise its bid.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, meanwhile, said before the earnings, “I wish Yahoo all the success with its results, but it doesn’t affect the value of Yahoo to Microsoft.”

So where does that leave Yahoo now? Wednesday might offer some clues, when Yahoo’s two-week test on outsourcing search advertising to Google ends. Or it may not. Yahoo chairman Sue Decker already swatted hopes on the call, saying it’s “premature” to speculate on what sort of deal the two might strike.

Photo: Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang (Reuters)

News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch dominated headlines again on Tuesday as not one, but at least three news items rippled across the media world.

As shareholders of rival paper The New York Times assemble on Tuesday morning for its annual meeting held at the company’s glittering new headquarters near Times Square, Murdoch took steps to accelerate the remaking of the Wall Street Journal in his image. WSJ is set to announce today the resignation of its managing editor Marcus Brauchli, who is leaving 11 months into the job and just a few months following the closing of Murdoch’s $5 billion purchase of Dow Jones. Murdoch appointee and publisher Robert Thomson will take over the top editorial spot in the interim, according to news reports. 

Meanwhile, News Corp deal makers across town appear poised to reach a deal to relieve real estate magnate and Tribune Chief Sam Zell of his Newsday newspaper for about $580 million to create a joint venture to combine Murdoch’s New York Post and other assets with Tribune’s paper. The Newsday deal is expected to cut about $50 million in annual losses at the Post. 

Then, quietly, Murdoch left the door open to a possible joint bid with Microsoft to buy Yahoo during a question and answer session at an event in which he was honored. Brauchli, the New York Times reported, attended the same event in Washington DC.

(Time.com) (WSJ) (NYT) (Reuters)

Keep an eye on:

• Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman may be conspiring to eliminate CBS Chief Les Moonves. (New York Post )
• Bambi’s getting company. Disney launches a new nature film label, Disneynature. (Reuters)
• MySpace snubs Fox for NBC News in new political site. (Hollywood Reporter)

(Photo: Reuters)

What does the future hold for Yahoo? With so many media titans in the picture, it’s anyone’s guess how this merger mashup will end.

Just as it appears more likely that Yahoo’s days as an independent entity is drawing to a close, comes a possible deal that would lead to a bigger and better Yahoo.

News Corp is considering joining Microsoft in its bid, which would bring in MySpace and create a more formidable rival to Google.

But Yahoo is closing in on a deal with Time Warner Inc that would fold AOL, excluding its legacy dial-up Internet access operations, into a combined Yahoo company.

Oh, and Yahoo is testing a Google ad search system as a potential way to keep Microsoft at arm’s length.

Got all that?

(WSJ)
(New York Times)
(Reuters )

Keep an eye on:

• “CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric is likely to leave the network well before her contract ends in 2011. (WSJ). On the other hand, CBS says “we have no plans for any changes regarding Katie or the broadcast.” (LA Times) If Couric is eased out as anchor, CBS plans to offer her either a syndicated talk show or a full-time role on “60 Minutes.” (Washington Post)
• HBO has named television agent Sue Naegle as its new entertainment president. (LA Times )
• Sling Media is expected to miss its second quarter goal of releasing SlingCatcher — a set-top box that brings video content from a Slingbox to another TV in a house, or from an external hard drive. (CNET )

(Photo: Reuters)

MySpace has sent out a ‘breaking news’ media advisory for a news conference featuring CEO Chris de Wolfe (left) at 11am ET, which we presume is about the launch of MySpace Music as Reuters reported yesterday to be coming in days.

Silicon Alley Insider reported later yesterday that Universal Music Group had settled with MySpace for $100 million, a figure we also confirmed from our source. The November 2006 lawsuit was the main sticking point for getting MySpace Music off to a flying start. With a third of the recorded music market under its thumb, Universal’s participation was seen as critical to the new service’s success.

MySpace’s parent News Corp. will own the majority stake of MySpace Music while Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group will each have a minority stake proportional to their market size, say our sources. The music companies also have an eye on a possible spin-off of the music company in the future, said one source.

No one knows if EMI, the smallest of the big four, will be on board in the future. This week the company appointed former Google executive Doug Merrill as president of digital.

Keep any eye on:

• Jay-Z does $150 million deal with Live Nation - NY Times, WSJ and Silicon Alley Insider
• The iPhone shortage - NY Times, Reuters
• Garmin to cut costs in 2008 - Reuters

Rupert Murdoch made his name dominating global entertainment and media by paying big for what he calls the battering ram — exclusive rights to air sports programming in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Asia.

He’s now executing from the same playbook in Germany, Europe’s biggest television market, whose viewers are quite happy not paying for television unless it’s soccer.

Confirming a report in Der Spiegel, a source close the company tells us Murdoch’s News Corp aims to buy up to 23 percent of Germany’s biggest pay television provider Premiere AG to control a majority at the June 12 Premiere annual meeting. He previously held a 19.9 percent interest as of February and had stoked buyout speculation in January after an initial purchase of more than 14 percent in January.

The reason? Premiere stands a chance to land the rights to air Germany’s Bundesliga soccer games, up for auction this year. Murdoch’s deep pockets will come in handy to trounce rival bidders, experts say.

So critical are the rights to air the games to Premiere, the company scrapped its 2008 financial outlook after the auction, originally scheduled for late 2007, was delayed until early 2008.

Some Wall Street Journal staff have been grousing lately over the paper’s increasing devotion to political and general news because they worry that it will move business news off the front page — something that seems inimical to a paper with the name “Wall Street” in it.

Not to worry, says Dow Jones & Co Chief Executive Les Hinton, business news is still what the Journal is all about. Here’s what Hinton said in an interview in the March 27 edition of The Australian (also owned by Murdoch’s News Corp):

“Whatever happens to the design, the key thing is we will put more national news in it and more political news in it,” he said.

“But that will be through additional pages because what we will never do is forsake its role of being, above all, the world’s business newspaper.

“That is its place in the world, it is the reason it’s prospered.”

And as for a free WSJ.com? Don’t bet on it:

“You’d never say never, but it doesn’t seem like a logical thing to do … The initial thought was if we were not having a pay barrier, we could grow very quickly and get the resulting advertising … That frankly was probably a little bit simplistic because … it has over a million subscribers. … Without going into detail, we get tens of millions in revenue from it.”

We came to a similar conclusion a few months ago.

(Photo: Reuters)

Whatever it is that drives Rupert Murdoch’s offspring out of the businesses he owns may also bring them back.

Could Elisabeth Murdoch return to daddy’s fold? Sure, according to a glowing profile in the New York Times on Monday of Rupert Murdoch’s elder daughter from his second marriage.

Once ruled out as a possible heir to Murdoch’s News Corp global media empire after her 2000 departure from Murdoch-controlled BSkyB to strike out — quite successfully — on her own, she stirs speculation anew over a possible return … someday.

NYTimes: “Could I foresee a day going back to News Corp.?” she said. “Yes, I could. Do I know how, or when, or what shape that would take? No. I don’t really ever want to leave Shine. So I don’t know how it would happen one day, but it’s certainly not out of the cards.” 

Lachlan Murdoch, Murdoch’s elder son, also left his post as deputy chief operating officer of News Corp in 2005, and is also seeking out media investments.

Elisabeth explains why the apples never fall far from the tree: In growing up Murdoch, she said, “Media was never a choice. You either have it in your veins or you don’t have it in your veins. I couldn’t imagine why you would want to do anything else.”

Will James Murdoch, anointed the heir apparent after his return to News Corp last year to run its Asia and Europe operations, have competition?

(NYTimes)

Keep an eye on:  

• MySpace close to a deal with major record labels like Sony BMG and Warner over a digital music joint venture. (NYPost)
• CBS has nuked “Jericho,” the low-rated post-Armageddon drama that was briefly brought back from the dead by fan demand. (Hollywood Reporter/Reuters)
• The Wall Street Journal’s transition to more breaking news and shorter articles will continue in the coming weeks with a makeover of its Marketplace section. (NYTimes)
• Traditional media companies jumps on the vertical ad network bandwagon.(AP)