AT&T has purchased Dallas-based WiFi hotspot operator Wayport for a stunning $275 million in cash. The privately held company administers over 10,000 WiFi hotspots for various hotel chains like Wyndham, Marriott Vacation Club and Four Seasons as well as McDonald’s restaurants nationwide.

I caught this bit of acquisition news a little late (it’s been on the PR wires for about fifteen hours now), but I got pinged by Austin Startup on the news early this morning, and it made me wonder if the same deal that’s been proffered to Starbucks customers will also be extended to McDonald’s patrons.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a coffee-addict, and I’ll use any excuse to hang out in a coffee bar for extended periods of time to suck down that sweet, sweet nectar of the gods.. but as a father who happens to be a web worker, I more often find myself setting up shop at a McDonald’s than the Starbucks across the street. To that end, I’d be far more likely to start up a tab there and set myself up with a McDonald’s Card if it came with two free daily hours of WiFi (and I imagine I’m not the only one in that boat).

Stacey Higgenbotham over at GigaOm sees it as more of a move by AT&T to aleviate the load off the mobile data network than as a value add for McDonald’s customers:

Buying Wayport and offering 20,000 hot spots (including in airports and McDonald’s restaurants) in the U.S. allows AT&T to provide its customers with more places to do their bandwidth-sucking applications. Already, AT&T is willing to let iPhone and BlackBerry users access its Wi-Fi hotspots free at Starbucks. It also means AT&T can hold out a bit longer before deploying its 4G LTE network, which is designed for data.

While that’s likely the rationale being used to justify the purchase, one hopes that they see the opportunity here to continue to expand their reach and build up business for their host partners.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:AT&T Giving Away Free Wi-Fi at StarbucksiTunes Wi-Fi Music Store Now LiveiPass Offers Wireless Net Access to Consumers with WiFi/3G NetworkAre Consumers Ready for WiFi on Airplanes?WeFi Finds Friends from Their WiFiMake Money with Your iPhone. Track Wifi Access Points.Loki - Location-based Search and Navigation

Source:Mashable!

The entire Microsoft-Yahoo saga is now starting to look really sad for Yahoo. After Jerry Yang’s statement yesterday that Yahoo is suddenly interested in being acquired by Microsoft, Steve Ballmer now responds with a firm no.

“We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don’t know why they would be either, frankly,” he said. “We tried at one point to do a partnership around search, not advertising. That didn’t work either, so we moved on, and they moved on.”

Although it’s still questionable that getting acquired by Microsoft is a good thing for Yahoo in the long run, now that it’s seemingly out of their grasp, any other deal (for example, the rumored AOL merger) will seem like a desperate move. Even if Ballmer is just trying to wreck Yahoo some more and get an even better deal, Yahoo is in an awful position to negotiate; they’ve tried several avenues, and all of them turned out to be dead ends.

Now, the best - and probably only - thing they can do is get new management, and start working hard at building value for their shareholders. The ship has been sinking for quite some time, and those who wanted to leave already left. Time to go back to the old drawing board and start from scratch.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Ballmer Comments on FacebookBallmer Keeps Bloviating, But Actually Makes Sense!Steve Ballmer Attacks Google’s Gmail AdsGreat, Now We’re Left with BallmerMicrosoft CEO and CFO Schedules Early Monday Morning Chat With Financial AnalystsThe Daily Poll: Should Yahoo Accept Microsoft’s Initial Offer?Microsoft Gives Yahoo 3 Weeks For ‘Definitive Agreement’ To Buyout

Talk about a 180. Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang spoke at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco; him and his company are tired, battered and bruised. But his message is now - suddenly, and amazingly - clear: Yahoo wants to be bought by Microsoft.

His exact words?

“To this day, I have to say that the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo. I don’t think that is a bad idea at all…at the right price, whatever the price is, we are willing to sell the company. We were ready to negotiate, we wanted to negotiate a deal, and we felt that we weren’t that far apart. But at the end of the day, they withdrew and they since have been very clear about not wanting to buy the company.”

Perhaps I have a bad memory, but Yahoo did not want Microsoft to acquire them following their initial offer which, in the light of perhaps inevitable economic recession and current Yahoo share price, now seems generous.

In fact: they did everything in their power to block the deal from happening, including negotiating a search ad deal with Google - one that was doomed to fail because of anti-monopoly laws.

Now, they’re willing to be acquired at the “right price,” which, in light of recent events, will inevitably be lower than Microsoft’s initial offer. This is a huge win for Steve Ballmer, who showed he’s a tough negotiator, who knows when to walk away and stalk for a better opportunity, and that opportunity is now. Microsoft is now buying a much, much weaker Yahoo, and even if their price is low; severely lower than their initial offer, Yang will probably have to take it.

The stage is now set for the final chapter of Microsoft-Google-Yahoo saga. Yahoo definitely pulled the shortest straw here; Microsoft may be a winner, but whether they’re capable of doing something useful with a giant such as Yahoo remains questionable. The real winner is, once again, Google, who interfered just enough to weaken both Microsoft and Yahoo as much as possible with virtually no downsides. Well played.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:MASSIVE: Microsoft May Acquire Yahoo for $50 BillionYahoo and Microsoft Officially Call It Quits@Yahoo is Twittering: @Microsoft: Sure, We’ll Consider an AlternativeThe Daily Poll: What Should Microsoft Do Next?Google to Acquire SimplyHired?Battle On: Microsoft to Launch Proxy Fight at YahooChina’s Alibaba Wants a Voice in Microsoft-Yahoo Discussion

Mashable is proud to present the 2nd Annual Open Web Awards, a unique opportunity for the most accomplished websites and services to achieve international recognition across scores of influential blogs.

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—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Announcing the Open Web Awards After PartyLaunch of MashableTV with the Open Web Awards TomorrowLive Now, from the Palace Hotel: The Open Web AwardsMashable.com Awarded Most Improved BlogOpen Web Awards: Hundreds of PhotosMashable Presents The 2nd Annual Open Web AwardsThe 2nd Annual Open Web Awards Live Gala:

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Earlier this year, as Yahoo fought off an acquisition attempt by Microsoft, it began to entertain a search advertising deal with Google. They even even went so far as to conduct a live trial of such a measure. Now the two Internet giants have effectively terminated the effort.

In June, as the US Department of Justice began its investigation of that arguably brazen move, the two companies forged an outline of what such an arrangement would look like if it were to see official approval.

But opposition steadily grew as Google and Yahoo heads stood strong for an October launch. Weeks later, they softened a bit, deciding to allow the DOJ to do its business. Yet, late last week, The Wall Street Journal reported a high potential of failure for their original proposal. Finally, today Google has confirmed the end of its agreement with Yahoo.

Google’s senior vice president of Corporate Development, David Drummond, who also sits as the chief legal officer for the company, cites government regulators’ ongoing scrutiny and concern and the possibility of a “protracted legal battle” and potential “damage to relationships with valued partners” as the key factors in its discontinuation of the search advertising plan put forth in late spring.

Drummond wrote that it was four months of review and “discussions of various possible changes to the agreement” that made it an ultimately unsuccessful venture. And in what seems to be a sort of token concession, the Google executive explained that an attempt to weather any and all conflicts “wouldn’t have been in the long-term interests of Google or our users.”

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Who Woulda Thunk It: Google Still Wants Deal With YahooYahoo-Google Deal Looking Good; Common Sense Packs Up And LeavesNewspapers of the World: Google-Yahoo Ad Deal is UnfairPushed By Icahn, Yahoo Jumps Back Into Ad Deal With Google?The Daily Poll: Is Microsoft-Yahoo Inevitable?MASSIVE: Microsoft May Acquire Yahoo for $50 BillionViacom Goes To Panama with Yahoo