Yahoo keeps mum on Microsoft bid
1 Feb 2008 | 17:15 GMT
But we think this will go through
IT'S BEEN A crazy day, dominated by the Microsoft-Yahoo news. Have you ever seen Techmeme so dominated by one story? But through it all, Yahoo has stayed pretty quiet.
To quote the press release in full:
“Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today said that
it has received an unsolicited proposal from Microsoft to acquire the Company.
The Company said that its Board of Directors will evaluate this proposal
carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo!'s strategic plans and pursue the
best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.”
Nobody who values their job is going to say more than that. Yahoo’s board now has to cancel weekend plans to go skiing, surfing or whatever, and decide whether to reject the deal or stick or twist.
It’s just about plausible that they could ask for a better offer, following the example off BEA’s brinksmanship with Oracle. Probably though they will decide that such a tasty premium is too good to turn down, shake hands and try not to laugh too publicly as they make its metaphorical way to the bank to pay in very large deposits indeed.
Would Microsoft go higher? It’s got to be doubtful given the market reaction to the news, where MSFT stock was down six per cent. The impact on the YHOO symbol was rather different, natch, with shares currently trading 43 per cent up.
Of course, regulators could yet spoil the fun by blocking this deal but when a number two and number three combine to challenge a dominant leader, common sense says that’s good for everybody. The Microsoft haters will say this just builds up the power of the world’s largest software company but that should be irrelevant.
In a word: this deal should go through. µ
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