All Things Digital

If Electronic Arts’ unsolicited bid for Take-Two Interactive sounds a lot like Microsoft’s unsolicited play for Yahoo–complete with both EA and Microsoft ultimately walking away–think again.

It’s only a little bit surprising that EA walked, mostly because Take-Two was in a far stronger negotiating position than Yahoo.

EA announced Sunday that it would cease discussions with Take-Two, capping nearly seven months of back-and-forth between the two gaming titans.

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A funny thing has been happening to Google lately. Have you noticed? It’s going up!

And I’m not talking about the one-day pop it got from those surprisingly good earnings, which shocked just about everyone on Wall Street and sent Google shares soaring.

I’m talking about the day-to-day creep-up, the steady momentum, the renewed interest in a company that never deserved to be on the outs to begin with.

The parallels to Apple are pretty striking.

Yes, the two are in decidedly different industries, but the status they enjoy in their respective industries is pretty striking. They are each the single, exciting brand, doing innovative things, controlling their markets, owning the buzz.

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Let me just say from the very outset: Any other publicly traded company would kill for growth like this, products like these, customers like those who can’t seem to snap up Apple gear fast enough. But Apple is hardly just “any other publicly traded company,” and, like it or not, the company is different–so investors “think different” when it comes to Apple.

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I’m skeptical. Let me just say that right out of the gate. I’m skeptical that Apple Inc. and Apple Corps have signed a deal to put the Beatles’ 255 song catalogue on iTunes. Don’t get me wrong, I see the economies here and I know that everyone involved sees $$$ in their eyes. And believe me, every fan I’ve talked to, including Steve Jobs himself, wants to see a deal get done.

I’m just skeptical that one is imminent.

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Investors lined up two hours before the Apple shareholder meeting began here in Cupertino, Calif. It’s a little unusual for them to be here so early, and I thought it might be related to the company’s 40% plunge since the beginning of the year. Instead, I found that euphoria had given way to cautious optimism, but optimism nonetheless, that Apple would continue to rely on innovation to recapture its stock market magic.

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Yahoo’s after-market reaction to the company’s earnings news says it all: Yahoo down 8% percent and you gotta wonder just how bad this news is going to get before it gets any better. If it gets any better. Stunning for a company that says today it enjoys 2 billion page views a month in the U.S. alone.

Yahoo did share some good news: beating the street by 4 cents a share, posting 15 cents instead of the 11 cents analysts projected. Earningswhisper.com expected 14 cents–so Yahoo even beat that. It posted those numbers on as-expected revenue of $1.4 billion.

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Look at Palm’s stock and it’s almost as if investors are ready to wash their hands of the downtrodden handset maker. Talk about a fall from grace: This is the company that virtually invented the smart wireless device, and today, courtesy of Silicon Alley Insider, a shocking realization that the company’s stock is worth less than its balance sheet.

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