Microsoft Abandons Bid For Yahoo

After a months-long standoff, Microsoft (MSFT) has abandoned its bid for Yahoo (YHOO), people involved in the discussions said today.

Microsoft confirmed to BoomTown that talks between the two companies, which have been taking place all week, collapsed Saturday when they could not agree on a price.

According to sources close to Microsoft, the talks broke down this afternoon after a face-to-face meeting in the Seattle area that included Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division and Yahoo Co-Founders Jerry Yang and David Filo.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[handyallen1]

yahoo is going belly up they dont even have the cash to maintain their buildings, if i were a stock holder i would be screaming bloody murder what a dumb move by yahoo

[Politiking]

Great move on Microsoft's part especially highlighting the issue on abandoning the bid "potential ad partnership with Google." It is a bad move on Yahoo! as the market will see them as unwilling to make a profitable move to get out of their business(es) lull. I expect Yahoo! stock price to go down as much as 35% on Monday and stabilizing at 25% from Friday Closing price $28.67. This move will prompt many of its shareholders to act and remove some members of Yahoo! board. I don't think Yahoo! will see the $20 stock price after this stupid move.

Jerry Yang, you may have been a great technical mind and lucky in the nineties, but you just bungled up this deal and the future of Yahoo! Go and Ask Jeeves!

[willo]

Yahoo could have cashed in, they tried to bargain for more money, and blew it. If Yahoo stock holders are in the game to make money they should be pissed off. If they are in it because they believe in Yahoo then maybe they should be happy.
What exactly does Yahoo do? What product do they make? Is it just another web site? What is there value based on?.

[Counterglow]

Yahoo has places to go and ways to grow. They might tank, especially if they don't get some creativity into their company, but that's essentially up to them. And having overvalued stock isn't necessarily a good thing for a company's long-term interests.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has Vista hanging around its neck like the proverbial albatross, and Windows 7 is looking a lot like some glorified version of shareware. I'm going to start calling it "Rentware" whenever anybody asks me to describe it.

Yes, Microsoft owns the world right now, but they've pissed off a lot more people than Yahoo. Yahoo's "Send A Dissident To Camp" policy (ratting out Chinese patriots to the corrupt pack of mass murderers currently running the country) has given it a fair bit of bad press. The story didn't have real legs, though, and a lot of people have already forgotten the incident. Microsoft has kissed its share of mass murderer ass, too, and its predatory marketing practices have left a lot of people just begging for an excuse to throw it under the nearest bus.

On top of that, the Ubuntu version of Linux (free, open-source software) has made some serious strides in the user-friendliness area. If they come a bit further, they're going to be a serious headache for Microsoft. Linux would already be a major competitor if Microsoft didn't pretty much turn a blind eye to the widespread piracy of Windows.

[Gary47]

One big dinosaur, one little dinosaur. The marriage would still be a dinosaur. Now there's two instead of one. Big deal.

[PacificGatePost]

Yahoo! demonstrated absolutely no vision or creativity during this questionable move by Microsoft.

New talent it needed aboard. If not, Yahoo! is in deep trouble for the long term.

[dukeitout]

Yahoo you blew it. Within a week your stock price drops to 20 where it was and where it belongs.

[dadw5boys]

ahh Microsoft will be back after all what's out there AOL ??? lol

[white_mende_man]

wow so much hate for microsoft and bill gates. especially what that company has done to advance computer technology. yes i'm happy they are making boat loads of money its called free enterprise its the american way we are not a communist country incase you have forgotten.

[dadw5boys]

Well Gates cost the U.S. Schools systems millions when all the research shows that the best teaching methods are the 1950's with Teachers in from of the class using a blackboard.

We have wired the schools giving him billions while disconnecting the Teachers and kids from each other.

Plus the H1-B Visa's when so many how retrained for those jobs at great expense.

[white_mende_man]

I'll bet you are mesmerized by that commercial where Apple claims to be better than Windows... notice how in the real world Microsoft could careless about Apple's pettiness afterall it was Microsoft that bailed out Apple 10 years ago.

[white_mende_man]

poor Yahoo! they will tank big time monday morning wish i had shorted the stock. by wednesday YHOO will be around $15.00

[bikerdude]

I think Microsoft has themselves in a very bad place. They are not developing any breakthrough stuff and the Vista product is tanking bad. Perhaps its time for a top-level shakeup. Buying semi-solutions will not fix their problems.

[ProgressiveBum]

Exactly, I am happy for Yahoo, whew!

[white_mende_man]

you have no clue do you? microsoft was going to take yahoo to a better position to go head to head with google. microsoft could start a new company but why do that when one is in place already to do the job with an infusion of funds?

it amazes me how people can become so jealous at other peoples good fortunes.

[Ariesjill]

MS....BEFORE Gates left, was being hoisted by its own petard: a consistent history of corporate Fascism, smoke & mirrors, Less Than Software and the end justifies the means . Among the top 3: Google (God); #2 and failng fast in the neo aOL sense,, Yahoo; and they, and they, MS, #3 and in slow-mo free fall.....their even thnking about hostile takeover of Yahoo was WRONGHEADEd, if not totally self destructive...I AM SURE MAJOR STOCKHOLDERS GOT THIS FROM JUMP.

So in this, finally seeing the light....they have, at least postponed the inevitable plummet.

HOTFIX that.

[KarateKid]

Now watch Microsoft swoop in and buy massive amounts of stock when Yahoo's stock prices continue to drop. I guess Yang and Filo don't want to settle for 45-46 billion. We should all have their problems.

[white_mende_man]

they are not allowed to do so, if its more than 5% they have to declare their intentions and file to do so.