Yahoo Rejects Another Bid From Microsoft, Icahn 119
Last night Yahoo rejected another offer for its search business from Microsoft and investor Carl Icahn. The proposal also included conditions that would have required the replacement of Yahoo's top management and board of directors. This is not the first time Icahn has pushed for such a measure. Quoting:
"Yahoo said in rejecting the offer it told Microsoft it was willing to sell the entire company for at least $33 a share and its board believed such a deal could be negotiated and executed before its annual shareholders meeting on August 1. Yahoo said it also informed the software giant it remained willing to negotiate an 'improved search-only transaction.' Microsoft, however, rejected both offers, Yahoo stated."
End game's near (Score:3, Interesting)
So far Yahoo seems to have come down a bit on the price, and Microsoft (and now, Icahn) seem to have more or less stuck to the offer -- hard to tell because it was a stock + cash offer and MS stock has declined after the offer was made. If they make a $33 all cash offer or something very close to it in the next couple of weeks, the deal may still get done pending regulatory approval. If the offer is any less, there will likely be a proxy fight and stockholder vote in early August to decide the fate of Yahoo board and its future. [The higher offer of $47.5B details still remain a bit of a mystery from early May -- with current Yahoo demands seemingly at $45.4B.]
This is getting more interesting to watch, since people are getting their egos involved. Microsoft team gave Yahoo only 24 hours to consider the latest proposal, which appears too short for a complex transaction, even assuming Yahoo had a chance to think through at least *parts of it* earlier. The current Yahoo position seems reasonable, since the deal will take time and MS team wants the Yahoo board and upper management fired NOW.
POPCORN TIME!
In a statement issued Saturday night, Yahoo said Microsoft imposed the "completely absurd and irresponsible" condition that it wouldn't deal with, or otherwise engage with, Yahoo's management to reach agreement on the new proposal. ... In response to Microsoft's latest overtures, Roy Bostock, Yahoo's chairman said in a statement: "This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo's stockholders in mind." "It is ludicrous to think that our Board could accept such a proposal," Mr. Bostock said. "While this type of erratic and unpredictable behavior is consistent with what we have come to expect from Microsoft, we will not be bludgeoned into a transaction that is not in the best interests of our stockholders."- WSJ
And although Yahoo's board "acknowledges that the current proposal contains a number of improvements over Microsoft's earlier proposal," the Yahoo board's believed this latest proposal is not in its shareholders best interests.- CNET
``Carl Icahn and Microsoft presented us with a `take it or leave it' proposal,'' Chairman Roy Bostock said in the statement.
- Bloomberg
_srr
Re:I hope yahoo stands firm (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean really, Microsoft is basically saying "Help us replace your board of directors with one sympathetic to us, oh and hey no worries we still make a purchase offer in your best interests."
It is worse than that. MS is saying "replace your board of directors with a board especially appointed to sell the company to us".
The problem with that it that it rules out refusing to sell, which greatly weakens Yahoo's negotiating position - it is much harder to get a good price if the buyer knows you have to sell to them.
The current board should have sold at the higher price, but changing the board now will not help.
Re:Back Pocket (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course he is. But... so are the board of Yahoo. Don't dare look to them as doing the right thing.
Yahoo is a dead company. It's going one way or the other, it's only a question of when. It's better for Yahoo to get it over with quickly in the interests of the employees, and those customers who have not already jumped ship.
Yahoo has never given a shit about its customers, its employees, nor much in the way of ethics (China, as one example). The sooner Yahoo dies the better for everyone.
Definition of Insanity (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft had tens of billions of dollars and their usual way of doing things drove MSN into the ground. Why do they think that their usual way to of doing things combined with a Microsoft-owned Yahoo will yield a different result?
Re:I hope yahoo stands firm (Score:5, Interesting)
I am not daming them at all. I am simply stateing the trend the past few months has been to go for the quick cash. I think that has a great deal to do with all the uncertainty right now.
I also think your wrong. Yahoo is an established internet company with a wide range of services. They are number two in search and not likely to be pushed out of that position by anyone else out there right now. If you look at Yahoo historically before all the Microsoft Hubub started you'd see their stock prices tracks the index by and large. Yahoo is not just a search company they are a media company. I think there is a long term slow growth value play in Yahoo is Microsoft is run off.
Re:Back Pocket (Yahoo not worth a penny) (Score:4, Interesting)
All this buying of internet companies is complete nonsense. You CAN and WILL do better than that dinosaur Yahoo if you TRY. Anyone can creat a fucking WEB SITE for God's sake.
But as far as I know, nobody has yet found a way of making monry from a search site that doesn't involve one particular patent, which Yahoo just happens to own.
Re:I hope yahoo stands firm (Score:5, Interesting)
But that's exactly the problem: Yahoo is a media company. Good media companies are able to generate plenty of good content at the lowest cost. At the same time, good media companies do a good job monetizing their content, whether through advertising, subscriptions, value-add, etc.
Yahoo does a poor job doing both. They have tons of content creators and developers working on each property. For example, Yahoo! Finance has roughly 700 people working on that aspect of the portal alone. Yahoo's efforts with Panama are a failure and they have trouble monetizing their search.
I think their poor use of resources and inability to monetize efficiently points at poor execution. Add on top of that the fact that Yang has not changed much since Semel shows that the company is continuing it's downward march.
Stand up for what you believe (Score:2, Interesting)
It's nice to see at lease ONE company with a backbone.
It's not always about money you know...sometimes it's about ethics and integrity.
Microsoft is a slimy, deceptive piece of shit, Yahoo seems to have some thread of moral fiber to them. I don't blame them for continuously giving Microsoft the proverbial finger when it comes to these buyout deals.
I for one...would never buy another yahoo product, if Microsoft was to take ownership of them.
Re:I hope yahoo stands firm (Score:5, Interesting)
3's a crowd. Ballmer isn't interested in a buyout, they're not even buying Yahoo's market share in the traditional acquisition sense. What Ballmer is doing is eliminating the current number 2 player in web search^w^w the online ad market, a position that will automatically be filled by MSN. We already know what Ballmers game plan is, in his own words...
Re:I hope yahoo stands firm (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:I hope yahoo stands firm (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the plan is to force out the directors, get them to hire new executives, and then act *shocked* when the SEC blocks the buyout. MS keeps its cash, Y! has been crippled beyond competition, investors lose.
I'm not sure if I should hate MS for this latest bout of evil, or love them for trying to pull a fast one on Icahn.
Re:I hope yahoo stands firm (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Definition of Insanity (Score:4, Interesting)
References, please?
What Patent??... (Score:1, Interesting)
... and does that include Google?? Is it the text ads? I mean do they have to pay for some kind of license or something?? If so I wonder how much that has to do with all this... I mean Microsoft would love to get some heavy leverage like that over Google.