Icahn Talk, Why Can't Microhoo?
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News Brief. Microsoft and Yahoo stopped talking. Not that anybody was listening. |
In a press statement sure to fire up Carl Icahn's can-do to oust CEO Jerry Yang, Yahoo said there will be no deal with Microsoft.
Yahoo said "discussions with Microsoft regarding a potential transaction—whether for an acquisition of all of Yahoo or a partial acquisition—have concluded."
Yahoo claimed that the conclusion comes after "numerous meetings and conversations," including one on June 8 that Chairman Roy Bostock attended. For anyone not closely following the drama, Microsoft had balked at dealing with Jerry; somebody thought Roy would be more, ah, grown-up.
"At that meeting, Microsoft representatives stated unequivocally that Microsoft is not interested in pursuing an acquisition of all of Yahoo, even at the price range it had previously suggested," according to the statement.
Ah, the animosity of jilted lovers is something.
What Microsoft was still willing to take, Yahoo wasn't ready to give: its search business. From the statement:
"Yahoo's board of directors has determined, after careful evaluation, that such a transaction would not be consistent with the company's view of the converging search and display marketplaces, would leave the company without an independent search business that it views as critical to its strategic future and would not be in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders."
My, my, what a mess. Yahoo's statement offers no real closure. Questions remain:
- Will Yahoo outsource part of its search business to Google?
- Will Carl Icahn can the board and replace them with his own people? If so, to what gain, now that any Microsoft deal, short of selling Yahoo's core search business, isn't happening?
- How will Microsoft increase its search share, even as Google gains, gains, gains?
- Can Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates really walk away from the company in a few weeks?
- Will Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer continue driving that gas-guzzling American car, when a foreign hybrid would be greener (for the cash saved and the environment)?
So there is a sequel to the Microhoo drama, just maybe not what anybody would have guessed six weeks ago.
Related Posts:
- Google Search Share Surges, Live Languishes, Microsoft Watch, May 22, 2008
- Live Search Cashes In on Cashback, Microsoft Watch, May 21, 2008
- Microsoft's Yahoo Plans Advance>>08, Microsoft Watch, May 19, 2008
- Microsoft and the Yahoo Lobotomy, Microsoft Watch, May 19, 2008
- Steve Ballmer and the Microsoftdom of Yahoo, Microsoft Watch, May 18, 2008
- Icahn Yahoo Better than You, Microsoft Watch, May 15, 2008
- Readers Woo-Hoo, Boo-Hoo Microhoo, Microsoft Watch, May 8, 2008
- Yahoo: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Microsoft Watch, May 8, 2008
- Let's Make a Deal! Please?, Microsoft Watch, May 7, 2008
- Why Didn't Microsoft Yell 'Yahoo'?, Microsoft Watch, May 5, 2008
- Where's the Yahoo Shareholder Revolt?, Microsoft Watch, May 5, 2008
- Will He Stay or Will He Go?, Microsoft Watch, May 5, 2008
- Translating Steve's Letter to Jerry, Microsoft Watch, May 5, 2008
- The Microsoft-Yahoo Blame Game, Microsoft Watch, May 3, 2008
- What Steve Said to Jerry, Microsoft Watch, May 3, 2008
- Microsoft Boo-Hoos Yahoo, Microsoft Watch, May 3, 2008
- Open Letter to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Watch, May 1, 2008
Comments (4)
No Deal is just fine with Microsoft stockholders. Today, MS stock is +4%, compared to -10% for Yahoo.
Carl Icahn is NOT going to be happy. (grin) I suspect that he is busy drafting another outraged letter to Jerry Yang.
Posted by JohnJ | June 12, 2008 6:10 PM
Yeah, It'll be great!
Once Carl turns Yahoo into an attractive e-portalling powerhouse of a buying opportunity, I'm sure every last one of you american pensioners are going to get your stock value and be able to move to Florida.
You know, just like it happened with Motorola and it's shareholders...
shrewdest investor on the planet - what a joke... more like a pedestrian hack in the home of the uneducated; land of the subprime
Posted by whatever | June 12, 2008 8:22 PM
six weeks ago? Portuno called it almost four months ago, right after Yang said what he said on February 14th. Although that link has "expired"
(By the way i'm dabbler3248 I just copy Portuno Diamo, what can I say, I was taught to copy GREATNESS!)
By: dabbler3248
14 Feb 2008, 02:19 PM EST
Msg. 208572 of 214038
Jump to msg. #
VERY interesting quote today by Yahoo's CEO
Yang told stockholders the company is "a faster-moving, better-organized, more nimble company than it was just a few months ago."
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(Portuno from February 17th)
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_M/threadview?m=tm&bn=12004&tid=1348011&mid=1348015&tof=5&rt=2&frt=1&off=1
Microsoft probably won't offer more for Yahoo because they really don't want to own Yahoo. I think we'll see Microsoft abruptly shift gears and settle with VCSY. That will (Ballmer hopes - I don't know if Wade will provide one) bring a license for 744/521 to Microsoft and MSFT's applications and platform inventory can then be made internet-powered and Yahoo will be washed away unless they've been working with evaluation versions of 744/521 all this time.
As long as Microsoft does not settle, they will not be able to use any development work that uses 744/521 claims. When Microsoft settles, the agreement will probably allow MSFT to begin using whatever 744/521 related development they have in the shadows to be used immediately.
So the risk Microsoft is taking is that 744/521 are in the hands of the Googles and Yahoos of the world for evaluation and they've been using that to develope their systems and one day they will be allowed by VCSY to begin using the patents for commercial work before Microsoft gets that chance.
Either way, Microsoft will likely let the Yahoo bid fail so they can claim they're being abused then settle with VCSY and miraculously derive some incredible internet-enabled applications.
Ballmer would then look like a genius (even though he would show clearly he's a crook) and the softees in the world will elect him to be CEO for the next twenty years.
Oh well, who cares. It's only money.
Posted by I-Man | June 12, 2008 9:43 PM
Carl Icahn is to value development as Lizzie Borden was to kosher butchery.
Posted by portuno | June 12, 2008 11:53 PM