Microsoft vs. Yahoo… The latests…
After a pretty quiet several weeks, the Microsoft-Yahoo battle is suddenly getting an attention. After Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said early Thursday he might walk out on its offer to buy Yahoo, the Internet portal floated the likelihood of a Google search ad deal. Then late Thursday night, Microsoft came right back with a leak in the Wall Street Journal that it’s leaning toward a hostile deal as early as Friday.
Here’s the most recent:
After a successful two-week trial, Yahoo as early as next week could go ahead with a deal to run Google search ads alongside its search results. A source close to the matter tells me the potential deal, first reported by the Wall Street Journal tonight, is “very far along” and represents a substantial step, not merely a negotiating tactic that many have assumed.
Earlier today, Ballmer had repeated to his employees in a town hall meeting that Microsoft could go in one of three directions—launch a hostile proxy fight to replace Yahoo’s board, come to some agreement with Yahoo, or walk away. Most observers have assumed, logically, that Microsoft won’t walk away permanently, and that a proxy fight would be more likely to be a prelude to a deal than an all-out assault on Sunnyvale. Locked in a fierce battle with Google over the future leadership of the Internet, Microsoft may not be able to afford the weeks or months of delay a truly hostile approach would entail.
Despite the Yahoo-Google deal, if it happens, Yahoo and Microsoft could still come to an agreement. A source tells me talks among a wide variety of people on both sides have been ongoing—talks much more extensive than have been reported so far.
And although it has appeared in recent days that the two sides might be closing in on a price for Yahoo stock somewhere in the mid-30s, it turns out the dance wasn’t over. As predictable as this merger minuet has been all along, the one thing that’s entirely unpredictable is when it will end.
