Microsoft in $44.6 Billion Bid for Yahoo
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The surprise offer of $31 a share, which represents a 62 percent premium on Thursdayâs closing price, would bring relief to Yahooâs long-suffering shareholders.
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Microsoft Corp offered  to buy Yahoo Inc for $44.6 billion, in a bold bid to transform  two ailing Internet businesses into a worthy competitor for  market leader Google Inc.
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Yahoo Inc. is set to reject Microsoft  Corp.'s offer, initially worth $44.6 billion, as undervaluing  the business, a source familiar with the situation said on  Saturday.
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Yahoo Inc.'s board will reject Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion takeover bid after concluding the unsolicited offer undervalues the slumping Internet pioneer, a person familiar with the situation said Saturday.
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Microsoft Corp  said on Monday that its $44.6 billion unsolicited offer for Yahoo Inc  was generous and it expects Yahoo's board and shareholders to agree to the buyout quickly.
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Yahoo Inc's  board  believes Microsoft Corp's  unsolicited bid of $44.6  billion to acquire Yahoo "massively undervalues" the company  and directors are set to reject the offer, the Wall Street  Journal reported on Saturday, citing an unnamed source.
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Yahooâs board decided that Microsoftâs $44.6 billion hostile bid undervalues Yahoo, a person familiar with the matter said.
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Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion -- but how did a company that started so small come to be worth so much? That's a story that began in the early days of the World Wide Web, when people were struggling to keep track of the new world of multimedia it offered them.
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Yahooâs board decided that Microsoftâs $44.6 billion hostile bid undervalues Yahoo, people involved in the discussions said.
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Yahoo looks for alternatives to Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
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Software giant makes $44.6 billion offer for the search engine.
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Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for around $44.6 billion in cash and shares, to better compete with Google in the market for online services.The market for online advertising is increasingly dominated by one player, Microsoft said, and merging with Yahoo will allow it to offer a competitive alternative.Microsoft expects the market for online advertising to almost double in size over the next three years, from $40 billion in 2007 to $80 billion by 2010. A merger will allow it to realize economies of scale and reduce capital costs as it addresses this market, it said.&quot;The combination of these two great teams would enable us to jointly deliver a broad range of new experiences to our customers that neither of us would have achieved on our own,&quot; said Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft, in a statement.Microsoft expects to cut costs by $1 billion a year by realizing synergies with Yahoo in four areas: obtaining economies of scale as its audience increases; combining its research and development efforts with Yahoo&#39;s to innovate faster; eliminating operational redundancy to cut costs, and pooling expertise to innovate in video and mobile.The companies will work together to develop the merger plan, Microsoft said.It intends to pay key Yahoo engineers and other staff to stay following the merger.The offer represents a 62 percent premium over Yahoo&#39;s closing price on Thursday. Microsoft expects to receive all necessary approvals in the second half of this year.
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Yahoo Inc's board believes Microsoft Corp's unsolicited bid of $44.6 billion to acquire Yahoo "massively undervalues" the company and directors are set to reject the offer, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing an unnamed source.
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Microsoft Corp   offered to buy Yahoo Inc  for $44.6 billion, in a bold  bid to transform two ailing Internet businesses into a worthy  competitor for market leader Google Inc .
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SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK  - Yahoo Inc would consider a business alliance with Google Inc as one way to rebuff a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft, a source familiar with Yahoo's strategy said on Sunday.
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Microsoft said&#160;its $44.6 billion offer to purchase Yahoo&#160;is &quot;fair&quot; and hinted that it may pursue a hostile takeover of the Internet company, according to a statement Microsoft made Monday in response to&#160;Yahoo&#39;s formal rejection of its buyout offer.In a statement, Microsoft said it&#39;s &quot;unfortunate&quot; that Yahoo &quot;has not embraced&quot; its proposal to combine the two companies, and the rejection of the offer &quot;does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal.&quot;The company also hinted that it may take the offer directly to Yahoo&#39;s shareholders, a move that could result in a hostile takeover.&quot;As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo&#39;s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal,&quot; Microsoft said in its statement.Earlier Monday, Yahoo formally rejected Microsoft&#39;s bid to acquire the company in a half-stock/half-cash purchase, saying it undervalued Yahoo.On Feb. 1, Microsoft offered to pay $31 per share for half of Yahoo&#39;s outstanding shares in cash -- about $22.3 billion -- and 0.9509 of a Microsoft share for the other half. Microsoft&#39;s half-cash/half-stock offer to Yahoo was valued at about $44.6 billion at the time it was made; Yahoo&#39;s share price was $19.18 at the time.However, since then Microsoft&#39;s stock has gone down while Yahoo&#39;s has risen, making the deal, under its current terms, worth less than when it was originally offered. This led to speculation that Yahoo might look for other suitors; the company is reportedly looking for about $40 per share. Yahoo&#39;s share price closed at $29.87 Monday; Microsoft&#39;s closed at $28.21.Some have speculated that Microsoft would raise its offer to the company to about $35 per share -- about midway between its original offer and Yahoo&#39;s target price -- but in its statement on Monday, the company seemed adamant about keeping the offer as it stands.&quot;We are offering shareholders superior value and the opportunity to participate in the upside of the combined company,&quot; Microsoft said. &quot;Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties.&quot;Microsoft&#39;s offer to purchase Yahoo is an attempt to join forces and improve both companies&#39; positions against Google in online advertising and services. However, many questioned both the logistical complexity and cultural differences involved in combining the companies, and there are fears that it will thwart rather than help their efforts to compete with Google.Yahoo is reportedly in talks with both AOL and Google to try to avoid being acquired by Microsoft. Analysts said Monday that Yahoo&#39;s initial rejection of the offer is more of an attempt to elicit a higher bid -- either from Microsoft or another company. If none comes, the company might decide in the future to accept Microsoft&#39;s offer as it stands, they said.
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Microsoft Corp  said on Monday it may borrow money for the first time in its history to fund a portion of its $44.6 billion unsolicited offer for Yahoo Inc .