As the recession dims the prospects of most big technology firms, Microsoft Corp. remains uniquely positioned to benefit from falling asset prices, says Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget. "While everyone else hunkers down and fights to survive, Microsoft gets to sit back and decide who to buy." Why? Because Microsoft has a cash hoard of $20 billion it can dip into, which will be nearly replenished this year with $15 billion of free cash flow. No one -- not Google, not Apple -- "will gain this much of a relative advantage from the global economic collapse," Blodget says. However, before …

The yellow pages industry is in deep trouble, and growing online revenues may not be enough to save it, according to The Wall Street Journal. Consumers are increasingly use sites like Google to find the information they need, and "now, the economic downturn is sending the already ailing business into a tailspin." Indeed, with small online audiences and slowing growth, online revenues will not be enough to offset rapidly declining print sales for most yellow pages publishers. The Journal points out that too many directory services are vying for the same local business ad dollars. Because of this, none of …

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged media mogul Mark Cuban with insider trading. The government agency alleges that the Dallas Mavericks owner and HDNet founder shorted his stake Internet company Mamma.com after hearing confidential information in June 2004. In the SEC complaint, a witness claims that Cuban quickly shorted his 6% stake in Mamma.com after being alerted about a proposed private offering of the company's shares, a move that would have diluted its stock price. After Mamma.com's CEO emailed Cuban asking him to call as soon as possible, Cuban reportedly said, "Well, now I'm screwed." The next day, …

A new IBM study reveals that online video is cannibalizing television consumption. The poll of 2,800 people in six countries found that 76% have viewed video online and that 45% do so regularly. About 15% of those who watch online videos say they watch "slightly less" TV than they used to, while 36% say they watch "significantly less" TV as a result of their online video viewing. Indeed, "place-shifting alternatives may be changing consumer couch-potato behavior," the study claims. IBM polled 2,800 people in six countries for the study. Other findings were that people definitely prefer the ad-supported model to …

The general consensus in the blogosphere is that Yahoo needs to find a replacement for departing CEO Jerry Yang FAST. There can be none of the dithering that Yahoo's board and management have been prone to in the past. This also needs to be a sound decision; neither Yang nor Terry Semel before him was the right person to lead the company. During their reign, Yahoo lost a lot of time and market share to competitors like Google in search and Fox Interactive Media in display. Speaking of Fox Interactive Media, Kara Swisher, who broke the news of Yang's departure …