Next time you see a house you must own

From Springwise

Aiming to invigorate a stagnating housing market, Dutch ING Bank is helping potential buyers bid on houses that aren't yet for sale.

The bank's WoonWaarUWilt ("LiveWhereYouWant") initiative, which launched yesterday, lets clients make an offer on the house they'd love to own. ING is partnering with online real estate firm iBlue. After potential buyers fill in a form on www.woonwaaruwilt.nl, including their dream home's address and the initial offer they're willing to make, iBlue contacts them to discuss whether the offer is reasonable, and adjusts it if necessary. A mortgage consultant also determines whether the buyers would be able to finance the purchase.

iBlue then sends a preliminary offer to the property's current owners, explaining the situation and inquiring whether they'd consider selling. As with other 'Intention Economy' real estate ventures we've covered before (in Finland and elsewhere), the reasoning is that many homeowners aren't actively interested in selling, but can be persuaded to do so if the right offer comes along. By declaring their intention and backing it up with a lender’s financial approval, buyers can help eliminate the uncertainty associated with putting a house on the market. Meanwhile, the concept is a smart way for ING to get a head start on other banks when it comes to financing the transaction.

Making an offer is free for clients, but if the owners are interested in pursuing the offer, iBlue acts as the buyer's agent and charges a commission once the deal is done. The Intention Economy was first described by Doc Searls as follows: “The Intention Economy grows around buyers, not sellers. It leverages the simple fact that buyers are the first source of money, and that they come ready-made. You don't need advertising to make them.” Which offers exciting opportunities for businesses who are willing to shift from marketing to buyers, to facilitating their intentions.

Website: www.woonwaaruwilt.nl

Corporate chess game - MSFT YAHOO

From Alley Insider - great site!

It's no secret Moishe likes deals and even more then deals he likes angles - here is a story covering the MSFT YHOO deal that talks about all the angles.

How Will MSFT Respond To YHOO's Counter?

Henry Blodget | February 9, 2008 5:54 PM

Yahoo's "rejection" of Microsoft's $31 bid isn't a rejection but a counter-offer of $40 a share. It remains to be seen whether the company will state this explicitly in its letter to Microsoft (unlikely), but it has already sent the message through theWall Street Journal. So the next question is...how will Microsoft respond?

The answer likely depends on how impatient Steve Ballmer is. Microsoft is in a strong position. No other bidders for Yahoo have emerged, and none are likely to. Yahoo has now indicated that it won't refuse to sell the company--thus forcing Microsoft to decide whether to pursue a hostile takeover--and many Yahoo shareholders have gone on record saying that they like the $31 deal (although they'd no doubt like a $40 one better).

Microsoft might therefore choose to take another page out of Rupert Murdoch's playbook by saying, politely, that it's not going to raise its offer and that it hopes to persuade Yahoo's shareholders to take it. And then, as Yahoo's stock drops back to the mid-20s and shareholders begin to grumble that Yahoo should have just accepted the bid, Microsoft will slowly ramp up its charm offensive.

After the Bancrofts rejected Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones, Murdoch quietly launched a full-court schmooze. Specifically, he met with the Bancrofts and reassured them that he wasn't going to destroy their baby. In Yahoo's case, there are no controlling shareholders to win over, but there are plenty of big ones. And Steve Ballmer has already met with the largest--Capital Research and Management--last week.

Cap Group Meeting in NY Post: A Message to Yahoo

The stated reason for the Ballmer-Cap Group meeting, as leaked to the New York Post, was Cap Group's desire to see if Ballmer was considering raising his Yahoo bid. Cap Group also owns 6% of Microsoft, and it was reportedly concerned that if Ballmer raised his bid, Cap Group would lose more on its Microsoft position than it made on its Yahoo one.

This may have been one reason for the Ballmer-Cap Group meeting, but there were undoubtedly others (Ballmer wanting to take Cap Group's temperature). News of the meeting was also obviously leaked for a reason (Microsoft and Capital Group are perfectly capable of keeping their mouths shut unless they have some ulterior motive). Our guess? Team Microsoft wanted to tell Team Yahoo that Yahoo's largest shareholder was already pressuring Steve Ballmer NOT to raise his bid.

Risks to Waiting? Some, But Slim

There are some risks to Microsoft's biding its time, of course. No other bidders have emerged, but given enough time, Yahoo might be able to put some kind of alternative deal together. Yahoo has already used the Journal and NYT to suggest that it has an alternative--outsourcing search to Google*--but this isn't really an alternative and Microsoft probably won't be fooled by it. One other issue that makes time a factor: Yahoo may deteriorate as an asset if a prolonged period of purgatory causes its best people to leave. Microsoft can't start locking up executives until it gets a commitment, and in the meantime, many executives may exit.

Microsoft may well be willing to raise its offer by a couple of dollars, especially, if, as the NYT reports, it was ready to offer $35 until Yahoo blew Q4. But if Microsoft's "final offer" is, say, $35, there's no reason to make an explicit counter-offer now. Instead, it can wait until the parties are at the table and throw in a concession to make Yahoo feel like it has won something. It's also worth noting that, based on Microsoft's current share price, the offer isn't $31 but $29. So Microsoft's last- minute concession could merely be to hike the offer back to the original bid.

Our current guess, therefore, is that Microsoft will respond to Yahoo's counter-offer by trying to win over Yahoo's big shareholders and biding its time.