One day after Reuter reported that Microsoft was “evaluation” its offer for Yahoo based on worsening marketing conditions, on Saturaday, in a a letter to Yahoo’s board, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company is tired of waiting for Yahoo to work out a deal, warning that if a deal wasn’t reached by April 26 the software maker would launch a hostile takeover at a less attractive price.
“It has now been more than two months since we made our proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium to its closing price on January 31, 2008, the day prior to our announcement,” Ballmer wrote. “Our goal in making such a generous offer was to create the basis for a speedy and ultimately friendly transaction. Despite this, the pace of the last two months has been anything but speedy.”
‘If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo board.
‘If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal,’ he wrote.
exactly what msft should say/do…and as usual Yahoo is probably sitting in their offices with deer-in-the-headlight looks on their faces.
Once again yahoo may “blow it”.
Agree Tim. Seems its the same kind of Yahoo handwringing that made other bad decisions {declined buying Google early, declined buying Ebay early, and bought Broadcast.com (a bag of smoke as Frank would say) late}. Yahoo does not have many good options, but playing hard to get is probably the worst option for its shareholders. Yahoo is not holding a good hand and their bluff appears transparent.