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Microsoft makes unsolicited bid for Yahoo
Software giant offers $44.6 billion in effort to challenge Google
Yahoo said it will carefully and promptly study Microsofts bid.
MSNBC staff and news service reports
updated 1 hour, 7 minutes ago
REDMOND, Wash. - Microsoft has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion, seeking to join forces against Google in what would be the biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner-AOL merger in 2001.
The surprise offer of $31 per share, made late Thursday and announced Friday, seizes on Yahoos weakness while Microsoft tries to muscle up in a high-stakes battle with Google likely to define the technology landscape for years to come.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
Yahoo repeatedly has rebuffed Microsoft's advances in the past but in a statement Friday the company said it will carefully and promptly study the bid. The Justice Department also said it would be interested in reviewing the antitrust implications of the offer, and analysts expect other enforcement agencies to follow suit.
With its profits steadily sliding, Yahoos stock slipped to a four-year low this week, and a new management team has been trying to steer a turnaround but sees more turbulence through 2008. Yahoo Chairman Terry Semel, who had rejected an earlier bid from Microsoft, resigned from the company's board Thursday.
Microsoft-Yahoo a good idea?
Feb. 1: Is Microsoft's plan to acquire Yahoo a good idea? A panel of experts discusses the issue.
CNBC
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, still one of the company's biggest shareholders, took over as chief executive last year after Semel was forced to step aside. Former advertising executive Roy Bostock, who has been on Yahoo's board since 2003, was named chairman Thursday.
The announcement of the Microsoft bid lifted Yahoos share price by almost 50 percent in Friday trading, while Google fell almost 8 percent, dragged down by a fourth-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street expectations.
In conference call Friday morning, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer indicated he wont take no for an answer after Yahoo rebuffed takeover overtures a year ago.
This is a decision we have and I have thought long and hard about, Ballmer said. We are confident its the right path for Microsoft and Yahoo. Video
Will Microsoft get Yahoo?
To underscore its resolve, Microsoft is offering a 62 percent premium to Yahoos closing stock price Thursday. If the deal is consummated, it would be by far the largest acquisition in Microsofts history, eclipsing last years $6 billion purchase of online ad service aQuantive.
Jordan Rohan, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said there was no way Yahoo shareholders could turn down the offer.
"The company has been floundering, and this is a great way to save face," he told CNBC. "Management has no reasonable out here."
Microsoft publicly disclosed its cash-and-stock offer in hopes of rallying support from Yahoos shareholders, making it more difficult for Yahoos board to turn down the bid.
"It puts a lot of public pressure right at the point where Yahoos management seems vulnerable," Rohan said.
In a letter released Friday, Ballmer pointedly noted Yahoos financial performance has deteriorated since Microsoft was spurned a year ago. At that time, Ballmer said he was told Yahoo believed it was better off on its own.
Software giant offers $44.6 billion in effort to challenge Google
Yahoo said it will carefully and promptly study Microsofts bid.
MSNBC staff and news service reports
updated 1 hour, 7 minutes ago
REDMOND, Wash. - Microsoft has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion, seeking to join forces against Google in what would be the biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner-AOL merger in 2001.
The surprise offer of $31 per share, made late Thursday and announced Friday, seizes on Yahoos weakness while Microsoft tries to muscle up in a high-stakes battle with Google likely to define the technology landscape for years to come.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
Yahoo repeatedly has rebuffed Microsoft's advances in the past but in a statement Friday the company said it will carefully and promptly study the bid. The Justice Department also said it would be interested in reviewing the antitrust implications of the offer, and analysts expect other enforcement agencies to follow suit.
With its profits steadily sliding, Yahoos stock slipped to a four-year low this week, and a new management team has been trying to steer a turnaround but sees more turbulence through 2008. Yahoo Chairman Terry Semel, who had rejected an earlier bid from Microsoft, resigned from the company's board Thursday.
Microsoft-Yahoo a good idea?
Feb. 1: Is Microsoft's plan to acquire Yahoo a good idea? A panel of experts discusses the issue.
CNBC
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, still one of the company's biggest shareholders, took over as chief executive last year after Semel was forced to step aside. Former advertising executive Roy Bostock, who has been on Yahoo's board since 2003, was named chairman Thursday.
The announcement of the Microsoft bid lifted Yahoos share price by almost 50 percent in Friday trading, while Google fell almost 8 percent, dragged down by a fourth-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street expectations.
In conference call Friday morning, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer indicated he wont take no for an answer after Yahoo rebuffed takeover overtures a year ago.
This is a decision we have and I have thought long and hard about, Ballmer said. We are confident its the right path for Microsoft and Yahoo. Video
Will Microsoft get Yahoo?
To underscore its resolve, Microsoft is offering a 62 percent premium to Yahoos closing stock price Thursday. If the deal is consummated, it would be by far the largest acquisition in Microsofts history, eclipsing last years $6 billion purchase of online ad service aQuantive.
Jordan Rohan, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said there was no way Yahoo shareholders could turn down the offer.
"The company has been floundering, and this is a great way to save face," he told CNBC. "Management has no reasonable out here."
Microsoft publicly disclosed its cash-and-stock offer in hopes of rallying support from Yahoos shareholders, making it more difficult for Yahoos board to turn down the bid.
"It puts a lot of public pressure right at the point where Yahoos management seems vulnerable," Rohan said.
In a letter released Friday, Ballmer pointedly noted Yahoos financial performance has deteriorated since Microsoft was spurned a year ago. At that time, Ballmer said he was told Yahoo believed it was better off on its own.