On Saturday May 3rd, Yahoo received another counter bid for the acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft. Yahoo declined their offer (again)…
At the meeting, which also included Yahoo’s other founder, David Filo, and a Microsoft president who oversees its online unit, Kevin Johnson, Mr. Ballmer increased Microsoft’s offer to $33 a share, or a total of about $47.5 billion, from $29.40 a share. Mr. Yang told Mr. Ballmer that Yahoo would not accept an offer below $37 a share, this person said. -NyTimes
Yahoo was simply milking the cow, but it looks like they either got greedy or they overvalue their assets. Microsoft’s Chief Executive went on to say: “After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal.” Tough love Yahoo! Not to worry though – Yahoo shouldn’t have any problem selling their company for a couple billion – it’s only a matter of who offers the most dollars.
A few other companies who have showed interest in the acquisition of Yahoo is AOL (Time Warner), MySpace (Fox), and this guy. Should be very interesting to watch how this unfolds in the next year or two.