Courtesy of SV411.com, here’s a quick rundown of the latest technology news in Silicon Valley.

The future seems unclear for once powerful search engine, Yahoo, as rival companies prepare their bids, after the company posted grim Q3 figures on Tuesday.Front and center in the bid war so far is Jack Ma of Ali Baba, who has announced that he is “very interested” in acquiring Yahoo. According to reports, another group of companies, led by Microsoft, is also preparing a bid for Yahoo.

Although she announced she was going to go along with former HP CEO Léo Apotheker’s direction for HP, CEO Meg Whitman received some advice from Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who was quoted by Fox Business as wanting HP to “stay the course.” Before turning over his post to Meg Whitman, Apotheker announced in August that HP would consider spinning off or selling its Personal Systems Group in favor of making the core of the company based around cloud and corporate technology support.

Dell Computers opened its new, 240,000 square foot campus in Santa Clara on Wednesday. Expected to employ as many as 700 people, the campus will focus on research and development.

Mountain View-based startup Lytro has started taking preorders for its debut product- a plenoptic light-field camera. The camera allows for photos to be refocussed after the photo has already been captured. Preorders start today for 8 and 16 GB models at $399 and $499 respectively.

Apple retail stores nationwide closed yesterday mid afternoon for employees to watch a streamed memorial service from Apple HQ for late co-founder Steve Jobs.