Microsoft og Yahoo

Så skulle det være ganske vist at Microsoft har tilbagetrukket tilbuddet om at opkøbe Yahoo. I et brev (se links længere nede) hedder det at

"Clearly a deal is not to be."

Yahoo har svaret på dette brev. Dermed burde sagen vel være endt. Som allerede nævnt bl.a. i Internetsøgning må Microsofts tilbud også ses som en manøvre til at destabilisere Yahoo, uden særlig stor risiko for Microsoft.
Brevet fra Microsoft udtrykker skuffelse over at Yahoo ikke har accepteret tilbuddet.

I am disappointed that Yahoo! has not moved towards accepting our offer. I first called you with our offer on January 31 because I believed that a combination of our two companies would have created real value for our respective shareholders and would have provided consumers, publishers, and advertisers with greater innovation and choice in the marketplace. Our decision to offer a 62 percent premium at that time reflected the strength of these convictions.

Der angives altså udelukkende økonomiske årsager til overtagelsen.

Also, after giving this week’s conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo! undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.

Google nævnes direkte i brevet, og især Yahoos reaktion på Google. Altså at Yahoo overhovedet have planlagt at reagere på Googles udmelding:

We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a “hostile” bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo! today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us for a number of reasons:

Her nævner brevet så en række grunde. De fleste beskæftiger sig med prisfastsættelse over for annoncører. Og det ser ud som om at dette er hovedgrunden til at tilbuddet blev trukket. Yahoo forklarer afvisningen af Microsofts tilbud med at det var alt for lavt, og opstiller en række argumenter i brevet.
Link
Search Engine Land med Microsoft-brev.
Yahoo's svar.
Internetsøgning om MicroHoo.