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?

Public companies

[Romancer]

Fair warning: Rant

Public companies are now being run by the shareholders that take out payday loans, refinance their houses so much they owe money when they sell, cannot build traditional savings since all their income is treated as disposable. Basically the get rich generation with no long term goals other than their next big "fix".

Why does it surprise anybody that the driving force behind these companies is to sell out no matter what the cost to the business, the employees, or even the customers?

Re:Public companies

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Why does it surprise anybody that the driving force behind these companies is to sell out no matter what the cost to the business, the employees, or even the customers?

And to head off the stream of ignorance about to insist that public companies are legally required to maximize shareholder value, the US Supreme Court has rejected that interpertation. The purpose of a Board of Directors is to protect a company, which it is allowed to view as a collection of relationships between customers, employees, etc. The case that decided this precident was based around rejecting a higher offer to take one that better served the companies culture.

Your company culture may be "profit maximizing," but don't pretend you can dictate to other companies.

Re:Public companies

[Dachannien]

Actually, 82% of Yahoo's float is held by institutions and mutual funds.

Re:Public companies

[metlin]

Welcome to Slashdot to see people who do not have a basic grasp of finance or business to rant about it.

For one, the majority of shares in most public companies today are held by institutional investors. The next big share holders tend to be PE folks (like Icahn, KKR etc), followed by insurance companies, hedge funds etc.

Secondly, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. If you went public, you did it for the money - and you can't cry foul when you do something stupid and when people hold you accountable. If you wanted your freedom, you should have stayed private. Sad, but true.

Now, one of the biggest advantages of going public is that you raise capital - and when investors put in their money, they expect returns. Now, some people like Icahn are just vultures who are looking for an excuse to make a quick buck, but most other investors are not happy, either, with the way Yahoo handled the situation.

Like or dislike does not enter business. If it makes business and strategic sense, you do it. If it does not, you don't. If you are interested in discussing morals, ethics and "feelings", you should have kept the company private and done whatever the hell you wanted. I haven't seen anything that indicates that a merger between Yahoo and Microsoft will be a bad thing. It may throw in a little more competition; however I can see why Google is worried - they run the risk of being called a monopoly if Yahoo gets bought out. At the end of the day, once you have shareholders, you have a responsibility to them. You may not like it, but you should have thought of it before you went after the greenbacks.

"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,

Right thing for employees.

[Odder]

Yahoo would not have survived to 2009 if all it's employees quit. That's why Yang made sure $2 billion of the purchase price would go to employee severance plans. There's probably been some disruption anyway. Wouldn't you have a resume on the street with all of the FUD and BS being flung? The severance plans gave employees a reason to stick around and be fired by M$, or just keep on working if the deal fell through.

Painting this to be a personal thing by Yang is nuts. Yahoo and M$ were getting along famously until M$ decided to launch a hostile takeover.

Re:It's like watching ugly people kiss

[negRo_slim]

Who hasn't already written off both of these companies? I would assume only a fool would write off two of the largest tech companies in the country (with a combined revenue of 57.33B).

or how desperately inept these two companies have become due to their size and age. Yes because we all know the only real innovation isn't done in multi-million dollar research centers, it's done in dad's garage, duh!

Microsoft's asset is an OS that people are still locked into, but becoming violently sick of. Yeah one would think the nightly car bombings outside of Microsoft's HQ would finally stop this 'stay the course' mentality. But for some reason people seem to enjoy using a OS on cheap hardware the runs reliably and quickly when configured properly. Oh and plays the latest games!.. We're in the twilight zone now.

Yahoo's asset is a rapidly diminishing brand and user base I'm sure that's it. Not anything to do with years of R&D or their Publisher Network.

The guys who will eat their lunch are the Googles and Apples of the world Yes because it's all about Google Search on OSX.

/sigh I have no problem with your mention of Google, but Apple... Really? Like for realsies? Sorry bro, I'm into computers... Not toys.

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

[Reverend528]

Clearly google is a biased source.

Re:It's like watching ugly people kiss

[Anonymous Coward]

A HAHAHAHAHAHA. You honestly believe that after some pending MS collapse that 3 different linux distributions will have the OS top market share? And you got modded Informative...

The level of self affirmation on this site has hit a new level.

Re:It's like watching ugly people kiss

[x_MeRLiN_x]

Office 2007 is actually very successful. Don't allow yourself to be manipulated by the Slashdot anti-Microsoft sentiments.

I also found the assertion of the GP hilarious. Do you interpret this graph as showing Microsoft's impending doom? If you do, you need glasses.

Re:It's like watching ugly people kiss

[RobertM1968]

I also found the assertion of the GP hilarious

I use Linux at home and I got to agree that he's living in a fantasy land. Linux has less than 1% of the desktop market last I saw. When at least 10% of the desktops sold have Linux on them, Ill start to believe in Microsoft's death. Hell, their nearest competition is Apple at some 7%

And at one time, Netscape had a monopoly on web browsers. Sure, it took all sorts of illegal actions on Microsoft's part to obliterate that monopoly, but 8-9 years ago, if you had said that another browser would start to seriously displace Internet Explorer, you'd be laughed out of the room.

Now Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape are gaining ground monthly - while still battling the "same old" (actions) from Microsoft. At the current rate, Internet Explorer will soon no longer be the browser holding majority marketshare.

What makes you think that Apple (gaining market share almost monthly) or Linux (slowly gaining market share for most of the months over the past 2 years) will not eventually reach the same point?

Here's the beauty of it that most people dont think of. For the most part (for the average user) a web browser is a web browser - if it works (and they all do - to at least the extent that the average user needs), then it doesnt matter too much which they use, so why not use the one that their tech/computer saavy friend/some site advertised to them? And in doing so, nothing has to be changed and nothing else needs to be written for it.

Now, when it comes to computers, Apple is beating the odds in that there are more things available for Windows... but for how much longer? The more market share Apple or Linux or whatever gets, the more stuff that will be written for it. That means less reasons not to switch (added to all of the many reasons cited on /. every day on why people should).

See the difference? Browser share gains are a relatively flat "curve" because of that... but soon, the OS curve will change from somewhat flat gain by non-Windows, to an actual curve (higher number of people switching each month) for whatever OS starts to truly compete with Windows, simply because as the percentage of users grows, the software to run on the OS will increase, fueling an even larger percentage per month to switch.

Other things that will help increase that uptake are things like the growing interest in OpenOffice and the growing defection from IE to Firefox or Safari.

Dont say it wont happen... it already is.