Microsoft-Yahoo Union Would Still Be No. 2
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A combined Yahoo and Microsoft would still be the underdog in the increasingly important business of Web search if Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo is approved by regulators and Yahoo shareholders.
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Unable to topple Google Inc. on its own, Microsoft Corp. is trying to force crippled rival Yahoo Inc. into a shotgun marriage, with a wager worth nearly $42 billion that the two companies together will have a better chance of tackling the Internet search leader.
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Yahoo&#39;s board of directors plans to reject&#160;Microsoft&#39;s unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid,&#160;The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing as its source &quot;a person familiar with the situation.&quot;According to the report, the source said the Yahoo board has determined that the $31-per-share offer &quot;massively&#160;undervalues&quot; the online services company. In addition, Microsoft&#39;s buyout bid doesn&#39;t take into consideration the business risks that Yahoo would be taking if it entered into an agreement that in the end might not be approved by government regulators, the source told the Journal.According to the Journal, Yahoo&#39;s board intends to send Microsoft a letter on Monday, detailing its position.A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment on the report today. &quot;We are not providing details on the board&#39;s review process,&quot; she wrote. &quot;Yahoo&#39;s board is carefully and thoroughly evaluating the Microsoft proposal in the context of all of the company&#39;s strategic alternatives, and will pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.&quot;Microsoft, which announced its offer for Yahoo on Feb. 1, couldn&#39;t be reached for comment today. The offer is a combined cash-and-stock deal; in announcing the bid, Microsoft said Yahoo shareholders could choose to receive either cash or Microsoft stock, although it added that the total consideration would be equally split between the two forms of payment.Yesterday, published reports said that Yahoo&#39;s board was meeting to discuss the offer.Yahoo is still evaluating other options,&#160;including a search advertising partnership with Google, according to today&#39;s report by the Journal. It also may still be open to a longer negotiation with Microsoft: The Journal said it was told by the source that Yahoo would be unlikely to consider any offers below $40 per share.If so, that would require Microsoft to raise its original offer by at least 29 percent, or about $13 billion. In other words, the cost for Microsoft to become a more credible rival to Google in the search and online advertising markets could start at about $57.6 billion.Google has been doing what it can to scuttle the Microsoft takeover bid, including playing the antitrust card by asking, in a blog post by one of its executives last Monday, whether Microsoft might &quot;attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC?&quot;Microsoft quickly shot back, issuing a statement saying that a combination of it and Yahoo merger would &quot;create a more competitive marketplace.&quot;(Eric Lai contributed to this story.)Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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Out Googling Google on bespoke scale Comment Should Microsoft's bid for Yahoo! go through, the combined company would face one very major infrastructure question - how far is it willing to go in the war against Google?â¦Learn &amp; Contribute, Live &amp; Online - The Register Debates Green Computing
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer rebuffed&#160;Google&#39;s accusations&#160;that an acquisition of Yahoo would be anticompetitive.The bid was made public Friday, prompting the response from Google over the weekend. Ballmer Monday at a news conference ceded ground to Microsoft&#39;s arch rival in order to justify his company&#39;s&#160;$44.6 billion cash-and-stock offer for Yahoo,&#160;which if accepted would fall under the scrutiny of U.S. and European regulators.&quot;Google&#39;s clearly got a dominant position,&quot; Ballmer said. &quot;They have about 75 percent of paid search worldwide. We think this enhances competition and anything else would be less good.&quot;A Google executive struck back at Microsoft on Sunday, charging that a combined Microsoft and Yahoo would control an overwhelming share of e-mail and instant-messaging accounts as well as portal traffic.David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer at Google, further suggested that if Microsoft buys Yahoo it might try to unfairly use its dominance in those areas, just as it did in the PC market.Monday&#39;s news conference, in which Ballmer spoke with Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell, appeared to put further pressure on Yahoo&#39;s board to accept the offer, which at $31 a share represents a 62 percent premium over Yahoo&#39;s closing price last Thursday.&quot;We think it&#39;s an extremely competitive offer,&quot; Liddell said.In a Monday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Yahoo disclosed an e-mail sent on Friday by CEO Jerry Yang and Roy Bostock, non-executive chairman of Yahoo&#39;s board. &quot;First, we want to emphasize that absolutely no decisions have been made and, despite what some people have tried to suggest, there&#39;s certainly no integration process under way,&quot; the e-mail read.Ballmer continued with a hard push as to how a deal with Yahoo will let Microsoft move faster in building out areas such as search, online services and online advertising.&quot;We are going to have to innovate like crazy,&quot; Ballmer said.But he also stressed how long it could take for a Yahoo deal to eventually benefit shareholders. Ballmer said he looks at whether investments will pay off five to 10 years down the line, but investors often want to see results in three years.&quot;Sometimes those investments look smart, sometimes it takes a while for them to pay off,&quot; Ballmer said.
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BRUSSELS, Sep 21 (IPS) - Microsoft will still wield enormous power in the  global computer industry despite this week's ruling by a  European court that the Seattle-based corporation has abused its  monopoly.
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SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK  - 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  on Monday rejected  Microsoft Corp's  unsolicited takeover bid, currently  valued at $42 billion, as too low, saying its board had  unanimously concluded it was not in the best interests of  shareholders.
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Microsoft is still confident of hitting its target of 100 million Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) downloads by the end of next month.
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InfoWorld - 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.
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U.S. and European antitrust regulators aren't likely to prevent Microsoft from buying Yahoo, analysts said Friday, though scrutiny of the deal could drag on for months.
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With political activity skyrocketing on the web, election officials may be forced to regulate. Also: Yahoo stays strong and growing & hellip;. 7-Eleven joins 21st century & hellip;. and more.
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Yahoo's reputation for being an edgy startup is years out of date, while Microsoft is stodgy, but not as ossified as many might think. So, should the two merge, reconciling the corporate cultures many not be that difficult.
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Fingers in both pies !!!!! Some of Yahoo!'s institutional investors are keen for the proposed Microsoft takeover to go ahead, not because they're pleased with the offer price but because they own shares in both Microsoft and Yahoo!.â¦
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No other buyer will be willing to pay more for Yahoo. Since Yahooâs management will not be able to justify turning down that sort of premium, Microsoft is likely to win the prize.
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Most of Yahoo Inc's  top  institutional shareholders may be more interested in making  sure Microsoft Corp  does not overpay for the Web  pioneer, because they have more money invested in the bigger  software maker, a research report said on Friday.
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The Microsft-Yahoo battle continued Monday with some unexpected twists. Microsoft indicated it will keep fighting even as Yahoo's board raised the price and reports suggested Yahoo is trying to restart merger talks with AOL.