Microsoft Offered $40 a Share For Yahoo

fistfullast33l writes "Bloomberg is reporting that a recently unsealed court case by shareholders against Yahoo reveals that Microsoft offered $40 a share for the Internet search company in January 2007 and Yahoo turned it down. We've extensively discussed Microsoft's bid for Yahoo earlier this year for $33 a share, which was rebuffed. Investor Carl Icahn has launched a proxy fight against Yahoo over the spurning of the Microsoft deal." CWmike notes Computerworld's coverage of the revelations: "The complaint places much of the blame on [Yahoo CEO Jerry] Yang, describing him as someone with a 'well-known' antipathy toward Microsoft who acted out of a personal interest to keep Yahoo independent. Something wrong with that? Oh, yeah... public company."

Comments

Jerry Yang did the right thing

[elrous0]

Sure it cost his shareholders billions, sure he's going to lose his job and be sued into oblivion for gross mismanagement, sure he will be lucky to make it out of the shareholder's meeting without being tarred and feathered. But the important thing is that he stood up to Bill Gates, stuck out his tongue, and yelled "I DON'T LIKE YOU!"

And isn't that what it's all about, folks?

"These go to $31."

[zooblethorpe]

I think people are being way too slow to jump the sinking ship here - if I were a YHOO shareholder, I'd have dumped as soon as the offer hit the table and the stock hit $30. Why on earth would you hold out for $31?

Well, since you asked why:

Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one higher, isn't it? It's not $30. You see, most blokes, you know, will be selling at $30. You're on $30 here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on $30 in your portfolio. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Hold out for $31.
Nigel Tufnel: 31. Exactly. One higher.

Maybe not too far off the mark...

Cheers,

Re:He did something far worse than that...

[Reverend528]

Clearly google is a biased source.

Re:or do it because its the right thing?

[urcreepyneighbor]

Yahoo isn't going away. I hope it doesn't. The world always needs an example of what happens when a company refuses to die.

It's like a fifty year old woman that dresses like a teenager. It's funny, yeah, but... a part of you feels so damn sad for her.

Re:He did something far worse than that...

[WebCowboy]

Clearly google is a biased source. Okay then, here is another source for balance.

Wonder of the litigious YAHOO shareholders ever see past their own noses too...

Re:It's like watching ugly people kiss

[geekoid]

No, it's not insightful at all. If you think it is I hope to hell you don't get mod points ever again.

Re:It's like watching ugly people kiss

[Darkness404]

Ok, so how else is MS going to get money when businesses are not buying Office 2007 because it is too different, not buying Vista because of reliability issues, and even the ordinary person sees Vista as a slow, unfamiliar piece of crap? What else is going to fill this void? Not Apple for sure after all the "think different" campaigns, the Apple brand has to be higher then the ordinary brand, and MS seems to have killed off all commercial OSes, so where else are people going to get OSes for computers? Linux is free, can look just like Windows/Mac/Atari/Amiga/etc. and is supported by many major businesses. you can't avoid the fact that Vista is a disaster, and Office 2007 is unfamiliar, MS has to innovate or die and it has shown it is not capable of innovating

Re:It's like watching ugly people kiss

[xtracto]

I think the multitouch mouse with gestures in personal computers was a first.

Read that again please :)