Yahoo over the weekend rebuffed another Microsoft advance, this time with Carl Icahn sitting shotgun. The proposal would have split up the Internet company by granting Microsoft control of Yahoo's search business and leaving Icahn and his new board with control over the rest of it. Yahoo quickly accused Microsoft and the billionaire investor of coercing the company to sell assets to support an "odd and opportunistic alliance" that doesn't have the best interest of its shareholders in mind. The latest attempt by Icahn and Microsoft was most likely the last in the lead-up to Yahoo's shareholder meeting on Aug. …

Apple on Thursday officially launched its highly-anticipated iPhone App Store, making more than 550 third-party applications instantly available for the coveted iPhone, whose 3G model was officially unveiled this morning at Apple stores across the globe. CNet's Caroline McCarthy claims that while Apple platform seems to have little in common with the social networking platform wars started by Facebook last year, the iPhone, in embracing third party developers, should now be considered a legitimate competitor to the major social networks. How so? "(The iPhone is) a device that's made for 'social,'" claims Bart Decrem, founder of Tapulous, a start-up firm …

Yahoo shares fell on Thursday following comments from Rupert Murdoch that News Corp. was "very unlikely" to be involved in any kind of Yahoo transaction, and that the Microsoft saga would probably not end in a deal, either. When asked what he thought of Microhoo, Murdoch responded, "There won't be a deal. There's bad personal feelings." Earlier this year, Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo for $47.5 billion, but the company abruptly pulled its offer in May, as Yahoo, preferring to stay independent, frantically sought alternatives to a Microsoft takeover. "In six months, (Microsoft) will walk away," Murdoch declared, talking to …

A new report from Gartner, a market research firm, says that corporations are failing to take advantage of social networks to improve productivity. Gartner researcher Jeffrey Mann said that huge opportunities exist for improving management through social networking, especially at large firms. The challenge, Mann said, was figuring out how to apply these tools to the corporate world. A recent Gartner survey of 18 countries and territories found that 38% of more than 4,000 PC and mobile users connect to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace via PCs. It also found that instant messaging, email, chat and file sharing …

Activision Blizzard, formed as the result of a merger between video game publisher Activision and the gaming unit of media giant Vivendi, plans to launch an online music platform that could rival Apple's iTunes media store. Bobby Kotick, the company's new CEO, said that creating an online music platform for Activision's popular Guitar Hero line of games was "the natural evolution" of a franchise that generated nearly $1 billion in worldwide revenues. "I don't think there have been a lot of credible alternatives to iTunes, but Guitar Hero certainly has that potential," Kotick said, adding that the merger with Vivendi, …