A certain tradition involving Charlie Brown, Lucy, and a football began over 50 years ago. Now, as Yahoo has once again claimed it’s open to the idea of an acquisition, it’s beginning to look like Steve Ballmer and Jerry Yang might set some record of their own.
Lucy was never in danger of getting fired, of course, and since Jerry Yang and Yahoo’s board face that threat, that may explain why their latest press release sounds rather bitter. Even though Yahoo kept Microsoft from achieving its goal for a while, the company’s running out of options.
Jerry Yang
The release notes, “Mr. Ballmer and Mr. Icahn have teamed up in an apparent effort to force Yahoo! into selling to Microsoft its Search business at a price to be determined in a future ‘negotiation’ between Mr. Icahn’s directors and Microsoft’s management.”
As for what Yahoo’s doing about this, “[W]e again invite them to make a proposal immediately. And if Mr. Icahn has an actual plan for Yahoo! beyond hoping that Microsoft might actually consummate a deal which they have repeatedly walked away from, we would be very interested in hearing it.”
Still, with less than a month to go until Yahoo’s annual stockholder meeting, Microsoft doesn’t have much of an incentive to trust Yahoo instead of Icahn. We’ll see if Steve Ballmer can outthink the famous “round-headed kid.”
