With billionaire investor Carl Icahn working ceaselessly to remove Yahoo’s existing board of directors in order to provide Microsoft with another acquisition opportunity, it comes as little surprise to learn that the Redmond-based behemoth has this week expressed its interest in reopening purchase negotiations.
Microsoft expresses its interest in reopening takeover talks with Yahoo. Image: Gnal/Flickr.
Tying in with close communication with Icahn regarding his ongoing campaign efforts to tear the chief executive officer’s seat from beneath Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, Microsoft has stated that it is still keen on buying all or part of Yahoo, but its revived interest is conditional to the removal of Yahoo’s current board.
Microsoft’s announcement comes less than a month ahead of Yahoo’s annual investors meeting, which bolsters Icahn’s position and also dents the efforts of CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock, who recently dispatched a ‘stand together’ letter to Yahoo’s investors in which they outlined the benefits of rebuffing Microsoft’s advances.
As a contributing indication of market sentiment regarding Microsoft’s apparent willingness to come back to the takeover table, shares in Yahoo Inc. climbed almost 12 percent on the back of the admission, rising to $23.89 USD per share. However, that figure still pales somewhat when compared to the $33 USD Microsoft was willing to pay prior to withdrawing its offer, an action that saw Yahoo’s share value plummet.
According to Microsoft, it would be willing to breathe fresh life into its acquisition interest, to the point where it would be prepared to either take the entire company or absorb Yahoo’s search business while providing “large financial guarantees” for the Internet pioneer.
However, Yahoo has said that, while it would be prepared to enter into renewed takeover negotiations with Microsoft, the prospect of handing company control to Icahn so that he could then subsequently sell Yahoo’s search business onto Microsoft at a future price would not in the best interest of its shareholders.
Microsoft’s initial takeover bid failed when Yahoo stuck to its corporate guns in insisting that the $44.6 billion USD offer vastly undervalued the Internet business.
Since that point, Microsoft has been active in purchasing numerous smaller companies with a view to boosting its flagging search advertising business, while Yahoo has penned a high-profile and lucrative search advertising deal with market leader Google Inc., which is set to be investigated by antitrust officials within the U.S. Justice Department.
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