In an email to Yahoo workers, Mr. Yang said the board of directors has yet to decide how to respond to Microsoft’s offer to buy the veteran Internet company for $US44.6 billion ($50 billion) in cash and stock.
“Our board is thoughtfully evaluating a wide range of potential strategic alternatives in what is a complex and evolving landscape,” Mr Yang wrote in the email, which was filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
“What’s become clear in the past few days is how much people care about this company. I’ve heard from many of you, and from other friends and colleagues from around Silicon Valley and across the globe, that we need to do what’s best for Yahoo and our shareholders.”
Microsoft’s unsolicited offer to pay the equivalent of $US31 per share for Yahoo highlights the 14-year-old California firm’s potential to recapture past glory, Mr Yang told employees.
That sounds interesting and motivating, MyMr. Yang. And smells fishy too.
Yahoo has said little more than its board is carefully reviewing options that include keeping Yahoo an independent company. Yahoo has received calls from “a number of interested parties” and has a wide range of strategic options, a source close to Yahoo told AFP.
Can there be some names? Where are all those private equity firms who like pouching valuable assets? Do they want to miss Yahoo? But then, $US44.6 Billion is not small cash, and Microsoft company has around USD$21.1 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities waiting to be reinvested. Who else have that much? Yeah, I know BHP does, but they are too busy pouching Rio Tinto for $US147.40 billion!
Those options include outsourcing online advertising to arch-rival Google, a proven master at pumping revenues from that well.
If it spurns Microsoft’s offer, Yahoo’s board of directors will be under pressure to give stockholders a soothing cash payout or even borrow money to buy back shares and turn the firm private.
Turn the firm private? I wonder how will that work out. If you know, please explain.
For some good reasons, I still think that Microsoft will be able to acquire Yahoo successfully. The question yet to be answered is just how long it will take.
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