WSJ.com: Weekend Roundup
February 11, 2008, 7:18 am
Weekend Roundup
Yahoo: So who is going to blink first? Yahoo’s board now plans to reject Microsoft’s $44.6 billion offer. That leaves Microsoft, according to this WSJ article, with a difficult choice: offer a lot more money or risk a truly hostile takeover. People close to Microsoft say the software giant is reluctant to pursue a proxy fight, fearing such action would increase the likelihood of key Yahoo employees leaving the Internet giant. More likely, Microsoft will try and recruit some of Yahoo’s big shareholders to put pressure on the company’s board.
In fact, Microsoft seems to already have some shareholders on its side. A group of 100 current and former Yahoo employees that own 2.1 million shares are willing to negotiate separately with Microsoft or any other bidder. (See this Reuters article and this blog post from Eric Jackson, leader of the dissident group of shareholders.)
Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo looked like it would make the task of unloading AOL tougher for new Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes. Not so fast. The Times (of London), citing no sources, is reporting that Microsoft’s bid reignited talks of Yahoo buying AOL.
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