The Biz of Coding

Microsoft reopens the Y! discussion — Again!

by Ujwal Tickoo on May 21st, 2008

Yup, its open again. After Investor Carl Ichan bought 4.4% stake in Yahoo! According to NYT Ichan "is considering a proxy fight for seats on the Yahoo board in hopes of pushing the company to restart talks to sell itself to Microsoft"

This time the discussion is around buying part of Yahoo! though the idea of acquiring the entire company isn't ruled out. Microsoft is considering various options:

…disclosed the revived discussions Sunday without providing any specifics about the nature of the deal being explored except to say it involved bolstering the companies' position in the online search and advertising markets.

"There of course can be no assurance that any transaction will result from these discussions,"

After Jerry Yang's blog got laced with criticism on his decision to not take the $33 offer he had said that he was open to talking again with MSFT — but Microsoft had talked about an independent (no yahoo!) strategy:

Jerry Yang has said that he is ok to re-open discussions with Microsoft. Will Ballmer take the bait? In another ominous pointer Bill Gates said, Microsoft wont pursue other deals and would focus on its independent strategy:

Microsoft won't be pursuing tie-ups or takeovers to replace its failed Yahoo bid, Bill Gates said in Tokyo on Wednesday.

No one believed Microsoft when they said a week ago that the Microhoo story is over. The scepticism wasn't misplaced ;).

POSTED IN: Microsoft