Chairman and CEO say $44.6 billion bid is too low in an open letter to Ballmer, but add that Web company is not opposed to some sort of deal.

Yahoo continued to reject Microsoft's $44.6 billion unsolicited bid for the company Monday.

The Internet company is not opposed to some sort of financial deal, but the current offer is too low, chairman Roy Bostock and chief executive Jerry Yang said in a letter responding to Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) sent a letter to Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) on Saturday, threatening to offer the deal directly to stockholders if the company's board did not respond by April 26. When first put forward Feb. 1, the deal was worth about 62% above market value.

Bostock and Yang pointed to Yahoo's three-year financial plan, its new AMP advertising management platform and the fact that the company recently reaffirmed its first-quarter and year-end outlook as reasons they believe the Microsoft bid was low.

Ballmer's letter acknowledged Yahoo's search for third-party bids from other companies such as Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500) and Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500), but questioned why the company refused to negotiate with Microsoft.

Yahoo's response also said that Ballmer's letter "mischaracterizes the nature of our discussions," and that the threat to take the offer to shareholders was "counterproductive and inconsistent with your stated objective of a friendly transaction."

The company said it was open to a transaction from any potential buyer, including Microsoft, but that it would reject anything below what it considers "full value."

View: Original Article
News source: CNN

I wonder what their definition of "full value" is? Seems like $44.6 billion is sufficient, though their trademarks and copyright values of the name Yahoo are probably worth a substantial amount.

Well at least they're not going down without a fight. Microsoft is getting so big that I don't see how a buyout of this size could be approved anyways.

Yahoo is being greedy (Yahoo want 45billion+), Microsofts offer is fine. And if they go directly to the share holders which they will) they will accept. No doubt. Why does Microsoft want to buy Yahoo anyway? I'm surprised Googling isn't crying yet...

To be honest, I would rather Microsoft buy Yahoo. Than News Corp buying them (or Google).

Well oddly enough, I believe the Yahoo executives are thinking about more than just money. They don't want to sell to Microsoft, and are happy running as their own company. If all they were thinking about was money, then I believe they would have taken Microsoft's offer. They know they won't get any more than that.

I'm afraid Microsoft will F up YMail.

I don't know what full value might be, but 62% OVER value sounds like a pretty darn sweet deal to me! I guess you could look at that, as Yahoo NOT being all about the money/greed?!

Yeah,
MS would probably totally screw up Yahoo mail!!

As far as i know, cause they want to get there search technology, but i like to see how MS gonna convert all Yahoo! FreeBSD boxes to WIndows .

Google got Doubleclick. And their models are even more similiar than MS/Y!. Yahoo had many overlappying things that MS could value from. If they want to beat Google, take the next competitor in line, and own them.


Same reason as before..and Google probably is getting ready to argue it, shoud the need arise.



The Yahoo name has alot of value. Historically, and asset wise. There is ALOT of user information in Yahoo's banks. Old schoolers that didnt have MS stuff had Yahoo. And generally, their email service is the best. Its clean, and easy to use. Other services have better individual features, but overall Y! seems to dominate.

62% is a sweet deal, unless Yahoo has plans that may boost its stock. If anyone knew the real reason, they'd make millions in the stock market.

^ uhhhhhhh eh?