Yahoo formally announced today that it is no longer in discussion with Microsoft for a deal of any sort. Both companies had renewed discussions once again exploring either an all-out acquisition or the sale of Yahoo’s search business. But Microsoft was “not interested in pursuing an acquisition of all of Yahoo!, even at the price range it had previously suggested.” And Yahoo’s board realized that selling its search business would effectively neuter the company in the long run. In a separate statement (also below) Microsoft says it is still willing to talk about that alternative transaction. A search deal with Google now looks more likely.
Here is the text of Yahoo’s press release (Microsoft’s statement is below).
Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today announced that discussions with Microsoft regarding a potential transaction — whether for an acquisition of all of Yahoo! or a partial acquisition — have concluded. The conclusion of discussions follows numerous meetings and conversations with Microsoft regarding a number of transaction alternatives, including a meeting between Yahoo! and Microsoft on June 8th in which Chairman Roy Bostock and other independent Board members from Yahoo! participated. At that meeting, Microsoft representatives stated unequivocally that Microsoft is not interested in pursuing an acquisition of all of Yahoo!, even at the price range it had previously suggested.
With respect to an acquisition of Yahoo!’s search business alone that Microsoft had proposed, Yahoo!’s Board of Directors has determined, after careful evaluation, that such a transaction would not be consistent with the company’s view of the converging search and display marketplaces, would leave the company without an independent search business that it views as critical to its strategic future and would not be in the best interests of Yahoo! stockholders.
Yahoo! remains focused on maximizing value for stockholders by continuing to execute on its strategy of being the “starting point” for the most consumers on the Internet and a “must buy” for advertisers. The online advertising industry is projected to grow from $40 billion in 2007 to approximately $75 billion in 2010 and the company believes it has the right assets, strategic plan, Board of Directors and management team to capitalize on this growth opportunity.
And here is Microsoft’s statement:
In the weeks since Microsoft withdrew its offer to acquire Yahoo!, the two companies have continued to discuss an alternative transaction that Microsoft believes would have delivered in excess of $33 per share to the Yahoo! shareholders. This partnership would ensure healthy competition in the marketplace, providing greater choice and innovation for advertisers, publishers and consumers.
As stated on May 3rd and reiterated on May 18th Microsoft was not interested in rebidding for all of Yahoo!. Our alternative transaction remains available for discussion.
Congrats- CNBC Breaking news sourced you “TechCrunch” on the crawl!
i’m buying YHOO if it gets to $19
I read this over at WSJ half an hour ago.
But, I still dont think Yahoo is gonna outsource its search to google.
Advertisements to Google, ok yeah.. I could accept that, that may be profitable.
But this?
good thing I sold at $29 ages ago.. Carl Icon must be going nuts! He has lost a lot of bux on this one.
The story broke here b4 the journal. (earlier that 1/2 hr ago.)
…did anyone notice big site slowdowns recently? Around 15:45 Eastern.
Seemed like Google AdSense had a snag, slowing page loads to a crawl on sites with Google ads. Appeared to affect TechCrunch, MySQL doc pages, even localhost pages that include Google ads…
Doesn’t surprise me. Neither MS not big Y know what they want to do. Google seems to be the only one with a concept. Guess who wins…?
I buy Smibs - it’s less of a lottery
This post? UGH.
I now that right now, Yahoo is an underachiever. Since October 2007, users of Yahoo! 360 like me have been waiting for the new blogging/social networking platform to be rolled out. In the mean time, Yahoo continues to stay unfocussed and rolled out garbage like Shine and generally run around like a chicken with its head cut off. Nonetheless, Yahoo is still a successful.
In today’s economy, most American corporations would kill to have what amounts to be a 10%-12& profit margin. Yahoo makes a lot of money, but it is still a punching bag because it pales in comparison to the profits and success of Google. While some at Yahoo are running around like Chicken Little, the sky is not necessarily falling.
I knew it Carl Ichan was going to lose it big this time because everyone thought Microsoft would buy Yahoo no matter what in order to compete with Google ….. haha serves him right.
How does this statement by Yahoo today jibe with a Google deal?
“Yahoo!’s Board of Directors has determined, after careful evaluation, that such a transaction would not be consistent with the company’s view of the converging search and display marketplaces, would leave the company without an independent search business that it views as critical to its strategic future”
It was predicted here first in February.
Serves him right?… What? All Yahoo shareholders lost on this one, not just Carl Ichan.
I think Carl Ichan is way better for Yahoo at this point in time than Jerry Yang. Jerry put in a poison pill that would hinder a take-over attempt even if it is the best thing for Yahoo. It also keeps him and his buddies from getting voted off the board.
If all Jerry wanted to do was play games like a little 2 year old he shouldn’t have taken the company public. Once you take a company public you are playing with other people’s money and you have an obligation to serve them.
He’s not going to get away with this. It may take some time, but Jerry’s days are numbered and I’ll be glad to see him gone!
@ 14 . Its not about Jerry , its about Yahoo. Yahoo still has a chance to come up under someone from a technical background rather than someone who has is here for the quick money and has no idea how tech companies run. Carl is going to hurt Yahoo the most …. and this time he is going to lose big himself too.
Let’s take a look at Yahoo for a minute. Falling fast in search and has to partner with their biggest competitor. HotJobs aquisition, lapped by upstarts with little funding. GeoCitiies…..could have been MySpace or Facebook with a saavy executive team, but failed to invest in technology or furthering the brand. Broadband.com…. could have been Itunes, didn’t Semel supposedly have the media connections to make this billion dollar investment successful? Yahoo is looking to be very good at taking a successful business and slowly drowning it. Hey, if you want to be a generalist, don’t pretend like you are trying to change the world. Time to shake some things up over there.
What I want to know is how does this affect the advertiser? ASK has always done the same thing, serving it’s own paid search listings along with Google’s. Often times you could see the same advertiser’s ad twice in a row, possibly even competing with themselves for placement. Be interesting to see if this makes it by the feds.
Yes, That is the only thing left and that is what happened now Google Adsense will have a new space i.e Yahoo Search Results. So the deal is final that Yahoo will place Google ads on their pages. However the deal is limited to US and Canada only. One good thing for users by this deal is their instant messaging will be collaborated so that GTalk and Y! Messenger users can talk to each other.
http://technology.ravisblognet.....rches.html
I buy Smibs