It would appear the long running takeover standoff between Microsoft and Yahoo is finally over, with American software titan Microsoft seemingly holstering its pistols of acquisition and riding off into the sunset in search of another viable absorption target to help it tackle Google’s online advertising reign.
Microsoft finally throws in the towel in Yahoo takeover wrangle. Image: Pailoberg/Flickr.
Specifically, Saturday saw Redmond-based Microsoft Corp. officially remove its $42.3 billion USD bid to attain the online advertising advantages of Internet giant Yahoo Inc., thereby closing off this particular avenue in its ongoing quest to stifle Google’s online search and advertising dominance.
After more than three months of near-rabid pursuit, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wrote in a letter to Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang that: “Clearly a deal is not to be,” after Yahoo apparently rebuffed Microsoft’s willingness to raise its standing offer from $29.40 USD per share to $33 USD per share -- the equivalent of $47.5 billion USD.
According to Ballmer’s letter, Microsoft securing the acquisition of Yahoo has been looking somewhat grim since it came to light that the Internet company’s entrenched board of directors were holding out for a vastly improved bid of $53 billion USD, which equates to $37 USD per share.
Further to that inflated figure, which is almost twice the stock share price held by Yahoo at the time of Microsoft’s initial approach, an unnamed source close to the negotiations has commented to The Associated Press that Yang actually wanted $38 USD per share.
The sudden holstering of Microsoft’s takeover howitzers comes as somewhat of a surprise to the industry given that the software company seemed all-too willing to pull the trigger on a hostile bid involving the introduction of a proxy board to replace those Yahoo directors opposing a purchase.
In his letter to Yang, Ballmer said that such a move would not be sensible, also intimating that ongoing discussions between the two parties have left Microsoft with the belief that Yahoo “would take steps that would make [it] undesirable as an acquisition.”
Yet, Microsoft’s retraction could still work out in the long run, with Yang subsequently now forced into making good on his promise to prise Yahoo from more than two years of financial disappointment. Should he fail to do that, it is likely Microsoft will swoop in on the back of any plummeting stock value and table a new (probably reduced) offer that will be significantly harder for Yahoo to refuse.
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