6 May 2008
It has been announced that Microsoft has dropped its bid to buy Yahoo!, following a dispute over an acceptable sale price for the online media firm.
Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, said Microsoft had increased its original offer from £24.1bn to £17 per share. However, Yahoo! had requested at least £27bn, or £24 a share more than Microsoft was prepared to pay. Ballmer also told Yahoo!'s that he would not pursue his original alternative plan of initiating a hostile takeover battle.
Ballmer told his own employees that Microsoft could achieve its goals without Yahoo!, albeit at a slower pace. Yahoo! maintained that Microsoft had offered too little to buy the company.
In a statement released after Microsoft's withdrawal, Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock dismissed the unsolicited bid as a "distraction". The source said, Yahoo! is not looking for offers, but added that the board is open to considering options that maximize shareholder value.
However, Yahoo! has discussed links with Time Warner’s AOL division and Google.
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