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Yahoo! rejects joint proposal from Microsoft, Icahn
Yahoo! Inc., owner of the second- most popular search engine, rejected a proposal by Microsoft Corp. and billionaire investor Carl Icahn that would have included the sale of Yahoo's search business to Microsoft.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 11:26 July 13, 2008
Sunnyvale: Yahoo! Inc., owner of the second- most popular search engine, rejected a proposal by Microsoft Corp. and billionaire investor Carl Icahn that would have included the sale of Yahoo's search business to Microsoft.
Yahoo's advertising agreement with Google Inc. has “superior financial value'' to the proposal from Microsoft and Icahn, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said in Business Wire statement today.
Icahn has criticised Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang for failing to close a deal with Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker. Microsoft, which on May 3 withdrew an offer to buy Yahoo, said on July 7 it may renew talks for a deal if Icahn succeeds in ousting Yahoo's board and Yang.
“Carl Icahn and Microsoft presented us with a ‘take it or leave it' proposal,'' Chairman Roy Bostock said in the statement. “It is ludicrous to think that our board could accept such a proposal. We will not be bludgeoned into a transaction that is not in the best interests of our stockholders.''
A transaction to buy the whole of Yahoo would be much more “straightforward,'' according to Yahoo's statement. The company's board “believes a whole company transaction could be negotiated and executed'' before August 1, it said.
Yahoo said the proposal from Microsoft and Icahn was made on Friday evening and the company was given less than 24 hours to accept. The US company called the alliance between Microsoft and the billionaire activist “odd and opportunistic.''
Yahoo agreed last month to let Google, the owner of the most popular search engine, sell some of the advertisements it runs alongside Internet search results. The deal was struck after Yahoo's talks with Microsoft fell apart.
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