That's right, it seems as though Mr. Carl Icahn's pressure-play on Yang-and-Board has worked; Yahoo! now seems to be willing to hear all offers. Moreover, it appears as though that Yahoo! will make one deal or another and, funny enough, the pressure now seems to be on Microsoft to close the deal or risk losing-out on any possible relationship with its target.
Microsoft's initial bid at $31 was quickly sweetened to $33 per share before being withdrawn in spectacular fashion a few weeks ago. The media, including lowly bloggers such as yours truly, have been talking about it (and scratching their heads) ever since. The deal seemed to be a smart move for everyone involved and the price seemed to be good enough to have all the major shareholders nodding up-and-down like mad. Much of the reason for the failure of the deal the first time around has been credited to the egos of the co-founders at Yahoo including Jerry Yang, it's current CEO. With pressure building from the likes of Carl Icahn, the activist investor, have shed such a big spot light on the deal that it seems as though Yahoo!'s Board has been left with no other option that look for any deal that will get them off their backs.
Microsoft re-approached Yahoo! shortly after the failure of the buyout offer with a complex partnership proposal that would see them working together on advertising - this came quickly after news surfaced that Google was working with Yahoo! on a very similar deal. It now seems that Yahoo! prefers the partnership proposal offered by Google, but would ultimately seek a satisfactory buyout offer from Microsoft. At the end of the day, Microsoft may get what it always wanted in the form of an acquisition, but it seems to be that if their next attempt doesn't work, they won't have another bite at the apple.
No comments:
Post a Comment