14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo!, with its current share price placing around $20, is no longer a matter of interest for Microsoft. Although the Redmond company offered $33 per share in May, when it opened a bid to buy all of Yahoo!, the facts in the next moths proved that Microsoft could have stepped into a dangerous area. The company seems to understand that, at the moment, a merger with Yahoo! may not lead to the best results, although continuing the search engine race by itself is quite challenging.
As the Los Angeles Times cites, Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell told investors, at an annual Microsoft meeting, that the bid for acquiring Yahoo! dropped on May 3 was the last offer of Microsoft. Negotiations went further that date, with proposals of buying Yahoo!'s search business, which were, as well, rejected by the board of the company. All along, the Sunnyvale based enterprise alleged that any given offer should be more generous in order to be even taken into consideration.
"Yahoo!'s existing business plus its recently signed commercial agreement with Google has superior financial value and less complexity and risk than the Microsoft/Icahn proposal," said Yahoo!'s staff on July 12. Their ego was even more offended by the fact that Carl Icahn, the investor who wanted to launch a proxy fight in order to replace the current directors from the board, was apparently backed up by Microsoft. The Redmond company declined having anything to do with Icahn's proposal, but the downfall of negotiations was already clear.
Microsoft's Chief Executive himself added, following Liddell's statement, that he hopes no further explanations must be given. CEO Steve Ballmer said that his decision had been clear for quite a while but that would be the moment when he believes everyone would understand that Microsoft's and Yahoo!'s paths are irremediably separated.