Microsoft withdraws Yahoo! bid! One of the rare news where I can put two exclamation marks instead of one.
Microsoft Withdraws Its Bid for Yahoo
The about-face followed a meeting on Saturday morning in Seattle between Microsoft’s chief executive, Steven A. Ballmer, and Yahoo’s chief and co-founder, Jerry Yang, according to a person familiar with the talks.
At the meeting, which also included Yahoo’s other founder, David Filo, and a Microsoft president who oversees its online unit, Kevin Johnson, Mr. Ballmer increased Microsoft’s offer to $33 a share, or a total of about $47.5 billion, from $29.40 a share. Mr. Yang told Mr. Ballmer that Yahoo would not accept an offer below $37 a share, this person said.
“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo has not moved toward accepting our offer,” Mr. Ballmer said in a statement. “After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal.”
Microsoft’s decision to walk away casts a cloud of uncertainty over Yahoo and its shareholders. The breakdown in the talks is likely to send Yahoo’s shares plunging, and Mr. Yang and his team will have to decide how to placate investors. (Source: NYTimes)
I think this is good news for Microsoft shareholders. Yahoo isn’t that worth the money to purchase, plus Microsoft has the technology, they just need to work out their visitor numbers. For Yahoo!, it perhaps it a good thing too, but I just kinda have a bad feeling that Yahoo! won’t be doing too well in the coming months to come.
