Yahoo makes Microsoft takeover easier

YAHOO HAS made a take over of the company easier by reversing one of CEO Jerry Yang's sillier ideas.

He thought that he could stop Microsoft paying huge amounts of cash for his second-rate company if he made it a condition that the Vole paid even more cash to him and his staff.

The plan promised generous cash and stock benefits to virtually all of Yahoo's nearly 14,000 employees if they were fired, took a pay cut or resigned after being involuntarily reassigned to another job within two years of a takeover.

It was estimated that it would have cost Microsoft an additional $462 million to $2.1 billion had the software maker been able to buy Yahoo at its initial offer of $44.6 billion.

Now Yahoo has revised the plan and made it a lot more difficult for employees to qualify for severance pay after a takeover. The changes also limit the eligibility period to the first year following a sale and allowed the board to scrap the plan entirely.

The revisions specify the severance packages won't be available if Yahoo decides to sell its search operations to Microsoft.

The Vole has repeatedly said it no longer wants to buy Yahoo in its entirety, but remains interested in a deal involving Yahoo's search engine.

Yahoo spokesman Brad Williams said the revision to the severance programme wasn't made with a sale in mind but was to stop any law suits.

Yahoo still thinks the original terms of the severance programme was a good idea, although with all the company lay offs it is starting to look like staff have more to fear from the existing administration than they ever did from Microsoft. µ

L'INQ
AP