Late Friday, word had leaked that Microsoft was reconsidering its offer for Yahoo “in light of worsening market conditions.” Over the weekend, Steve Ballmer and Jerry Yang exchanged letters re-iterating their respective company’s positions, summarized best by the following quotes:
[img src="" caption="" credit="" alt=""]Ballmer: “The substantial premium in our initial proposal anticipated a friendly transaction with you. If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal.”
Yang: “[our current growth] plan has received positive feedback from our stockholders, further strengthening the view that Yahoo! is worth well more as a standalone company than the value offered in your proposal, and would be even more valuable to Microsoft.”
It has now been more than two months since Microsoft’s initial offer. On the day it was announced, 65% of you thought that Yahoo should take the deal – which represented a 62% premium on the value of Yahoo the day before. Now, two months later with no conclusion in sight, the economy in a tailspin, and Yahoo having rolled out numerous new products such as Buzz and Live, we pose the same question:
{democracy:125}