Microsoft urges Yahoo to accept 'generous' takeover offer
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Software giant Microsoft urged Yahoo to accept its "generous" 44.6 billion dollar takeover offer, adding it hoped to get a quick response from the major Internet player.
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Microsoft Corp. offered to buy search engine operator Yahoo Inc. for $44.6 billion in cash and stock in a move to boost its competitive edge in the online services market.
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Yahoo Inc  on Monday rejected  as too low Microsoft Corp's  unsolicited takeover  offer, currently valued at $42 billion, putting the ball back  in the software giant's court to pursue a deal.
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Hours after Yahoo officially rejected Microsoftâs takeover bid, calling it too low, Microsoft called Yahooâs response âunfortunateâ and said its proposal was âfull and fair.â
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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 Corp  on Friday said  it had offered to acquire Yahoo Inc  in a proposed cash  and stock deal valued at $44.6 billion.
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NEW YORK/SEATTLE  - Yahoo Inc on Monday rejected  Microsoft Corp's unsolicited $41.6 billion takeover offer as  too low, forcing the software maker to either sweeten its bid  or adopt a hostile approach to clinch a deal.
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If Yahoo accepts Microsoft's big buyout offer, will some of the Yahoo services you like be discontinued or, perhaps worse, Redmond-ized?
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Microsoft plans to intensify its pursuit of Yahoo this week when it authorizes a proxy fight to oust Yahoo&#39;s board, meaning the 19-day old acquisition attempt will soon turn a darker shade of ugly, according to The New York Times.The proxy fight will cost Microsoft between $20 million and $30 million, much less than having to significantly up its offer for Yahoo, The Times reported Tuesday morning, quoting anonymous sources.The aggressive move would be consistent with Microsoft&#39;s statements hinting that it&#39;s willing to acquire Yahoo via hostile means if necessary.&#160;Yahoo&#39;s board rejected unanimously Microsoft&#39;s offer, calling it too low.Yahoo declined to comment about The Times&#39; article. Microsoft didn&#39;t immediately reply to requests for comment.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, the bid&#39;s value has dropped to about $41 billion as the price of Microsoft&#39;s stock has fallen from $32.60 at the time the offer was made. It was trading at $28.77 on Tuesday morning. At the same time, Yahoo&#39;s stock has surged, erasing the bid&#39;s original premium. It was trading at $29.32 on Tuesday morning.In the proxy fight, Microsoft would hire a proxy solicitor to urge Yahoo investors to kick out board directors, The Times reported, adding that all Yahoo directors are up for nomination this year.After investing heavily in recent years in its Internet business and failing to achieve its desired goals, Microsoft is now convinced that it must acquire Yahoo in order to compete against common rival Google, especially in search advertising, the largest online advertising market pie, and one that Google dominates.As of the end of 2007&#39;s third quarter, Google had almost 25 percent of the U.S. Internet advertising market, up from almost 21 percent in 2006&#39;s third quarter, according to IDC. Meanwhile, Yahoo&#39;s share during this period dropped to 11.3 percent from 12.3 percent, while Microsoft&#39;s declined to 5.2 percent from 5.8 percent, according to IDC.In search usage, Google held a commanding 62.4 percent of queries worldwide, followed by Yahoo in a very distant second place with 12.8 percent, according to comScore. Microsoft ranked fourth with 2.9 percent, after Baidu (5.2 percent).Unquestionably, Yahoo would be a major win for Microsoft in the display ad market. In November, Yahoo ranked first in the U.S. in display ad impressions with a 19 percent share, while Microsoft came in third with 6.7 percent, after News Corp.&#39;s Fox Interactive (16.3 percent), according to comScore. Google took seventh place with 1 percent.However, skeptics question whether acquiring Yahoo will yield the expected benefits, considering the complexity of integrating the two businesses, cultures and technology platforms and the fact that Yahoo has had severe internal problems that have stumped its most seasoned executives. In addition, some aren&#39;t sure that a unified Microsoft/Yahoo will have a better chance to compete against Google.Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang, who is also on the board of directors, has been urgently looking for and considering alternatives to a Microsoft acquisition soon after Ballmer and company made their bid.Reports -- all attributed to anonymous sources in various media outlets -- have emerged in the past two weeks that Yang has held conversations with Google, AOL and News Corp., exploring various deals that would allow him to reject Microsoft&#39;s offer.The key is that the shareholder value created by a competing deal would have to at least match the value of Microsoft&#39;s deal. Otherwise, Yahoo would make itself liable to shareholder lawsuits that alleged the board had failed to perform its fiduciary duty.So far, as experts have analyzed the potential value to Yahoo of outsourcing its search advertising to Google, merging with AOL or selling a 20 percent stake to News Corp. in exchange for MySpace, the consensus has been that none of those scenarios comes close to matching Microsoft&#39;s offer.
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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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F*ck! me! Microsoft has made a $44.6bn takeover bid for Yahoo!.â¦
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Microsoft Corp  said on Monday  that Yahoo Inc's  rejection of its initial offer to buy  the company was "unfortunate," but it does not change its  belief in the merits of its proposal.
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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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Microsoft said Friday it had offered to buy struggling Internet firm Yahoo for 44.6 billion dollars (30.0 billion euros) in a bid to take on Google in the crucial battle for online revenues.
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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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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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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.