An alternative to a full takeover of Yahoo presented the company with a Microsoft offer of a billion dollars for Yahoo’s search assets, and $8 billion to buy back stock from corporate raider Carl Icahn and other investors.
Even though Microsoft has stuck to its position that a full takeover of Yahoo no longer exists as an option, the company said as recently as June 12th its “alternative transaction remains on the table for discussion.”
But Yahoo opted to clear the table, break the dishes, smelt the silverware, and dump the salt and pepper shakers all over the floor. Yahoo chose to hook up with Google in a deal potentially worth $800 million in its first year of annual revenue, derived from placing Google ads next to Yahoo search results.
It appears Yahoo opted for less from Google, a viewpoint All Things D summarized in citing whispers from Microsoft insiders. Unlike Microsoft’s proposal, Google’s option keeps all the search technology and development in Yahoo.
“Microsoft sources say execs were stymied by Yahoo, which offered to sell the entire company to Microsoft up until three days ago,” Kara Swisher said.
If Yahoo were trying to get Microsoft interested in buying it again, that certainly runs counter to the posturing Yahoo made in the past month. Jerry Yang and company have a full slate of lawsuits confronting them over the scuttled deal, and renewed Microsoft acquisition interest could have helped mitigate them.
Microsoft persisted in its ‘fuggedaboutit’ attitude about purchasing Yahoo. The Google deal came about last night, but fans were few and far between.
Shares of Yahoo finished down slightly today, closing at $23.47 and dropping further to $23.13 in after-hours trading. Analysts cited by the Mercury News expressed pessimism, with one saying Yahoo and its co-founders, Yang and David Filo, “blew it” with Microsoft.
