The Yahoo board has responded to corporate raider Carl Icahn’s sharp criticism and call to action with this tiny note out today:
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jun 06, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) –Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today issued the following response to Carl Icahn in response to his letter dated June 6, 2008:
Leaving aside Mr. Icahn’s inaccurate interpretation of our retention plan, we again note that he has no credible plan to operate Yahoo!. We believe that Mr. Icahn’s suggestion that we cancel our retention plan would have a destabilizing impact on Yahoo! More»

Labels: microsoft merger, Yahoo, YHOO

I think this speaks for itself!
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Labels: Microsoft, msft, Search, Yahoo, YHOO

After Yahoo spurned their initial offer Microsoft said they were no longer in the game to aquire Yahoo. However corporate raider Carl Icahn entered the fray last week with a proposal that would force Yahoo into Microsoft’s arms, netting Icahn a huge payday if Microsoft ponied up the $33+ they were clearly willing to pay before.
As if this deal was not already complicated enough, Microsoft is now proposing to Yahoo some form of collaboration on search, presumably a deal where Microsoft and Yahoo search teams would team up against Google.
We’ll have to wait for more to critique the plan but More»

Labels: Microsoft, msft, Yahoo, YHOO

Carl Icahn has notified the Yahoo board that he’ll be leading a takeover of the company. The letter below was his notification to Yahoo, and included his intention to buy 2.5 billion in stock. Presumably Icahn has already confirmed that Microsoft is still interested in a takeover, and given Steve Ballmer’s legendary temperament I’m guessing that he is giddy at the prospect of ultimately winning the battle he walked away from a few weeks ago.
I think Icahns prospects of losing this are small, and would guess he’s in for one of the biggest paydays in corporate history. More»

Labels: icahn, Microsoft, msft, Yahoo, YHOO

Billionaire takeover strategist Carl Icahn is looking at a possible play to force Yahoo back to the table with Microsoft to sell the company at a big profit. The news today sent Yahoo up about 1.30 and YHOO is still rising in after market trading.
Given that the prevailing stock price of Yahoo is well below Microsoft’s top offer of $33 per share, this play has only one key challenge - making sure you can get Microsoft back to the table. Frankly I think that is not much of a hurdle to overcome as I More»

Labels: google, icahn, Microsoft, msft, Yahoo, YHOO

Yahoo shares opened this morning at $23.02, down $5.65 from yesterday’s close. However Yahoo has bounced back a bit to just under $25 per share at 1pm, perhaps reflecting investor’s optimism that a deal will still be struck with Microsoft after what some - including me - think was a case of MS CEO Ballmer calling Yahoo’s high price bluff.
Jerry Yang wrote investors and the public today at the Yahoo Andecdotal blog in a post titled “OK, so now what? There he writes:
We’ll continue to execute on our plan — making your Internet experience as personal, relevant, open and More»

Labels: Microsoft, msft, Yahoo, YHOO

Both in the mainstream TV news and online there seems to be a lot more noise than signal about the Yahoo Microsoft merger situation. I still think that Microsoft plans to acquire Yahoo and that they will find a way to make it happen over the next few months.
This view seems to put me in the minority because many are saying the deal is “dead”. That is technically true of course - Microsoft withdrew their offer yesterday - but Ballmer’s letter made it very clear that he was still open to a sale, and I More»

Labels: Microsoft, Yahoo, yang, YHOO

Following is the verbatim text of the letter from Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer to Yahoo’s Jerry Yang. The source of this letter is Microsoft.
May 3, 2008
Mr. Jerry YangCEO and Chief YahooYahoo! Inc.701 First AvenueSunnyvale, CA 94089
Dear Jerry:
After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!.
I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo!’s Board of Directors for your consideration of our proposal. I appreciate the time and attention all of you have given to this matter, and I especially More»

Labels: merger, Microsoft, msft, Yahoo, YHOO

Microsoft has walked away from the merger talks with Yahoo after the two companies failed to reach agreement on price per share. Microsoft had increased their original offer of $31 per share in cash and stock exchanges to $33 per share (I’m not clear if that $33 took into account Microsoft’s lower price since the initial offer or did not factor that in). Most reports said that Yahoo eventually indicated they would sell for $37 per share.
My take on this is that this is a clever strategic move by Ballmer and Microsoft who I think More»

Labels: ballmer, merger, Microsoft, msft, Yahoo, yang, YHOO

The Wall Street Journal is following Microsoft and Yahoo closely and via Google news you can read part of the WSJ report here but for the full WSJ go to Google News and select the story from there.
Microsoft has indicated that they will raise their offer to $32 or even $33 to avoid a hostile takeover fight, and Yahoo appears to be willing to settle in the neighborhood of $37. With only four dollars per share standing between a huge black eye for Ballmer and a collapse in Yahoo’s price how long can this go on?
Not long at all.
I’d More»

Labels: Microsoft, msft, Yahoo, YHOO