Yahoo Board to Reject Takeover Bid From Microsoft
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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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Yahoo Inc  is set to reject  Microsoft Corp's  unsolicited bid, now worth $42  billion, as too low, a source familiar with the situation told  Reuters on Saturday -- the first clear signal the board might  be prepared to negotiate and sell the Internet media giant.
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Confirming&#160;weekend rumors, Yahoo rejected on Monday&#160;Microsoft&#39;s $44.6 billion cash-and-stock offer, saying the unsolicited proposal substantially undervalues the company.In a statement, Yahoo said that its management team, along with financial and legal advisors, believe the offer doesn&#39;t reflect cash flow, earnings potential, or recent investments in its advertising platform.Further, Yahoo said its board would continue to&#160;evaluate other &quot;strategic options.&quot;&#160;[&#160;See related Special Report:&#160;Microsoft makes bid for Yahoo&#160;| Blog:&#160;&#160;Yahoo + Microsoft: What&#39;s love got to do with it?&#160; ]&quot;We remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all stockholders,&quot; the statement said.Microsoft offered $31 per share on Feb. 1, which was a 62 percent premium over Yahoo&#39;s closing price the day before. Since then,&#160;Yahoo&#39;s stock has risen in value&#160;and was trading just above $29 on Monday morning.Yahoo&#39;s executives were rumored to have been searching for a buyer other than Microsoft. However, no buyer has emerged. Yahoo&#39;s latest moves mean that Microsoft may have make a more generous offer, or pursue a hostile takeover.Microsoft said it believes the acquisition of Yahoo would give it the engineering talent and resources to compete better with Google. While Microsoft and Yahoo have had some success with display advertising, Google has built a fortune on contextual text ads that appear during a search.
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Internet giant Yahoo's board has decided to reject Microsoft's takeover bid, saying its 44.6 billion dollar offer "massively undervalues" Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
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Yahoo Inc is set to reject Microsoft Corp's unsolicited bid, now worth $42 billion, as too low, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Saturday -- the first clear signal the board might be prepared to negotiate and sell the Internet media giant.
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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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Microsoft Corp will authorize a proxy  battle for Yahoo Inc this week to convince the Web company's  shareholders to agree on a takeover deal that the Yahoo board  so far has rejected, the New York Times' DealBook blog said on  Tuesday.
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Yahoo Inc  on Monday rejected  as too low Microsoft Corp's  unsolicited $41.4 billion  takeover offer, a move viewed by Wall Street as the first salvo  in an effort to get the software maker to raise its bid.
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Yahoo's rejection Monday of Microsoft's buyout offer sets the stage for the US software giant to up the ante or attempt a coup by ousting the Internet firm's board of directors.
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Yahoo&#39;s rejection of Microsoft&#39;s acquisition bid&#160;is likely a negotiating strategy to elicit a higher offer and shouldn&#39;t be seen as an attempt to resist a deal at all costs, according to analysts.Neither Microsoft nor Yahoo has many options to improve their position in online services and advertising, and combining forces is their best bet against common rival Google, analysts said.&quot;It&#39;s part of a larger negotiation that&#39;s occurring. Clearly, Yahoo should be and is seeking a higher bid, and this is part of that process,&quot; said Clayton Moran, a financial analyst with Stanford Group.Yahoo is unlikely to find a company willing to bid as much as Microsoft for it, while Microsoft will not be able to attain its Internet goals by acquiring a company other than Yahoo. &quot;While they need to negotiate and go through the process, at the end of the day this deal will happen,&quot; Moran said.On Monday, Yahoo rejected Microsoft&#39;s bid, saying it undervalues the company. Microsoft offered to pay $31 for half of Yahoo&#39;s outstanding shares and 0.9509 of a Microsoft share for the other half. At the time of the offer, Microsoft&#39;s stock stood at $32.60 and the bid was valued at $44.6 billion, a 62 percent premium over Yahoo&#39;s stock price at the time. However, the bid&#39;s value has dropped with Microsoft&#39;s sliding stock price, which at press time was $28.10. At the same time, Yahoo&#39;s stock price has risen from a close of $19.18 on the day before the bid to $29.75 at press time.Moran predicted that Microsoft will adjust its offer so that it ends up at $35 per share, probably increasing the fixed cash portion and reducing the variable stock portion so that value is less vulnerable to Microsoft stock fluctuations. A $35-per-share offer would be a midpoint between the original bid and the $40 per share Yahoo is reportedly seeking.&quot;We continue to view a Yahoo sale to Microsoft as the most likely outcome,&quot; Citigroup financial analysts wrote in a note published Sunday after press reports over the weekend that Yahoo would reject the Microsoft bid. The rejection isn&#39;t surprising but rather is consistent with Yahoo&#39;s board job to &quot;extract maximum value&quot; for shareholders, the Citigroup analysts wrote.Yahoo has reportedly held talks with Google and AOL to explore alternatives to a Microsoft acquisition. One scenario being floated would be for Yahoo to outsource its search advertising business to Google, while another, reported Monday by The Times of London, has Yahoo and Time Warner&#39;s AOL discussing a possible merger.However, neither option would match the potential benefits of an acquisition by Microsoft, Moran said. &quot;A combined Yahoo-AOL wouldn&#39;t be particularly strong, and Yahoo&#39;s stock wouldn&#39;t react favorably to that deal,&quot; Moran said. A search partnership with Google would boost Yahoo&#39;s revenue, but it wouldn&#39;t address larger problems within the company, he said.For Moran, if Yahoo has approached AOL, it has done so probably to send a message to Microsoft that it has other options and that Microsoft has to sweeten its offer. Meanwhile, Google&#39;s intervention is probably directed at complicating and lengthening the negotiation process between Microsoft and Yahoo and thus delaying the formation of a stronger rival, Moran said.While merging with AOL is unlikely to give Yahoo the boost it needs, such a deal would probably be more palatable to Yahoo&#39;s management because Yahoo would be the strongest party in the fusion, according to industry analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.&quot;Yahoo sees its own demise in a Microsoft acquisition. My sense is that Yahoo&#39;s management believes that Yahoo&#39;s soul wouldn&#39;t survive as part of Microsoft,&quot; Sterling said.At this point, the situation is very complicated for both Microsoft and Yahoo. If Yahoo is intent on fending off Microsoft&#39;s advances at all costs, Microsoft could opt to walk away empty-handed and face a public embarrassment, or attempt a hostile takeover, which could alienate and scare away Yahoo employees it would want to retain, Sterling said.At the same time, Yahoo can&#39;t simply wave away a generous Microsoft offer if it doesn&#39;t have an alternative to it, Sterling said. &quot;There is a great deal at stake for both sides, and it&#39;s very complicated,&quot; he said.Microsoft declined to comment about Yahoo&#39;s rejection. AOL didn&#39;t immediately reply to a request for comment about its reported merger talks with Yahoo.
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Yahooâs board decided that Microsoftâs $44.6 billion hostile bid undervalues Yahoo, a person involved in the discussions said.
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Yahoo Inc rejected  Microsoft Corp's unsolicited $41.6 billion takeover offer as  too low on Monday, forcing the software maker either to sweeten  the bid or adopt a hostile approach to clinch a deal.
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Yahoo Inc.'s board has concluded Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion takeover bid undervalues the slumping Internet pioneer and plans to reject the unsolicited offer, a person familiar with the situation said Saturday.
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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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Blog: Yahoo shareholders reject censorship, executive pay proposals, re-elect all board members at shareholder meeting
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Fearful that software giant plans to "steal" company The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the board at Yahoo plans to reject Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover offer.â¦
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SANTA CLARA, California  - Yahoo Inc.  shareholders voted down proposals to tie executive pay to competitive performance and challenge the company's human rights policies in China at their annual meeting on Tuesday.