Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 07 July 2008 22:39
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Looks like Microsoft is willing to talk turkey about buying part of all
of Yahoo once more, but there’s a catch – Yahoo must elect a new board,
with Carl Icahn threatening to dump Chief Yahoo Jerry Yang should it
happen!
Reuters has
reported that if well known corporate investor Carl Icahn gets his way and sees a new Yahoo board elected, Microsoft’s plans to snaffle up Yahoo could start up all over again.
Of course it’s now well know that Yahoo! wanted US $37 a share when Microsoft was only willing to pay $33 a share, a value that put Yahoo at US $47.5 billion.
Quite why this wasn’t enough for “Chief Yahoo” Jerry Yang is now the stuff of legend, after all, it’s not every day you get that kind of offer.
But clearly Yang though it was good enough to refuse, at least long enough to annoy Microsoft so much that it decided to pull away from the deal, clearly hoping that future events might see it get Yahoo at a much cheaper price.
After all, who truly wants to spend nearly US $50 billion if they don’t have to?
Reuters says that Icahn has been in “frequent” conversation with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, which is hardly a surprise given Icahn owns a 4% of Yahoo, which is not to be sneezed at, even if you have allergies.
Icahn told Reuters that: “You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to realize there is no great comfort zone between the current Yahoo board and Microsoft. During this waiting period for regulatory approval, any acquirer -- not just Microsoft -- would want a steward they would feel comfortable with."
Icahn has been fomenting dissent among shareholders but many were already greatly disappointed when the original deal fell through – quite a few were expecting a lovely Microsoft payday, and while it still might happen there’s clearly no guarantee that Microsoft will be as generous a second time around!
Continued on page 2.
