Yahoo! rips into 'ludicrous, absurd' Microsoft/Icahn offer

by Stephen Withers

Monday, 14 July 2008

Page 1 of 4 ! Yahoo! has rejected yet another Microsoft deal, this time one hatched in conjunction with super-investor Carl Icahn. The Yahoo! board has labelled the proposal "ludicrous" and "absurd", but would those terms be better applied to their own actions instead? While the full details of the 'take it or leave it' proposal do not seem to have been made public, it seems that the basics involved the resignation of Yahoo!'s board and senior management, and the sale of its search business to Microsoft, with Icahn and associates taking over the running of what's left of Yahoo!. Yahoo! officials said the company declined, but repeated its previous offer to sell the whole company to Microsoft for $US33 per share, or to negotiate a better deal for a search-only acquisition. Neither was taken up by Microsoft, though Yahoo! still believes a whole-company acquisition could be negotiated and executed before Yahoo!'s August 1 annual meeting. "This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo!'s stockholders in mind," said Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock. "Clearly, Microsoft, having failed to advance in search, is aligning with the short-term objectives of Mr Icahn to coerce Yahoo! into selling its core strategic search assets on terms that are highly advantageous to Microsoft, but disadvantageous to Yahoo! stockholders. Yahoo's Board of Directors will not allow that to happen." The idea that Yahoo! would within 24 hours agree to undergo a restructure, hand over its search business to Microsoft on terms that are less favourable than the existing arrangements with Google, and give control of the remainder of the company to Icahn was "ludicrous", he said. Icahn is also accused of an about face on the deal. Find out what he said on page 2 . << First page <   1 2 3 4 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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