Who were the sources in Microsoft-Yahoo! story?

Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times and Marek Fuchs of TheStreet.com have called into question the sourcing in a New York Post story Monday that claimed that Microsoft was close to a deal to buy Internet search engine Yahoo.

First Dudley. He wrote, “The New York Post owes everyone a good follow-up story.

“You can’t just drop a bombshell that jerks around 80,000 Microsoft and Yahoo! employees, rocks Wall Street and then fizzles before the day is over.

“The Post should investigate — and report — whether its anonymous investment banker sources made any money off the huge run in YHOO caused by its story.

“If the Post doesn’t do this, the SEC might. We don’t need any more reporter subpoenas.”

Now Fuchs. He wrote, “First, count the named sources. In this story, there were none. Now, The Business Press Maven is no Sweet Polly Purebred on the subject of anonymous sources. There are legitimate reasons to use them, someone once told me.

“That brings us to the second and last step of ‘Source Analysis.’

“Investors need to be given some sense of who the anonymous source is. If they aren’t, the risks are too high.

“I’m not too worried about sources being made up from whole cloth. It’s possible, but not probable. But these sources can be out of the loop, outdated, attempting to outmaneuver rivals or out of their minds — especially in today’s environment in which many are ‘talking’ at some level in some fashion.

“Reading the Post story, I had no sense of who the sources were. This means that you should consider the veracity of the article.”