14 DAY TRIAL // For those who expected that Yahoo! would maybe reconsider its position regarding the deals proposed by Microsoft, the late Saturday press release came to set the record straight. As of late, the company has made a habit out of ruling out whatever the "traitor-investor" Carl Icahn and the Redmond enterprise have put forward. The latest offer, regarding Yahoo!'s search business, which is very appealing to Microsoft, as it was indicated by its previous bids, was declined in a rather condescending fashion.
"Microsoft and Mr. Icahn are trying to dismantle the Company and deliver our search business to Microsoft on terms that would be disadvantageous to Yahoo! stockholders. We are prepared to let our stockholders, not Microsoft and Carl Icahn, decide what is in their best interests and we look forward to the upcoming vote," said Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo!, underscoring the fact that the current board of directors needs all the support of their stockholders, in order to prevent the taking over of the company by Icahn and his affiliates.
The representatives at Yahoo! declared themselves dazzled by the ultimatum given by the two parties that brought forward the bid. "The proposal was made on Friday evening and Yahoo! was given less than 24 hours to accept the proposal, the fundamental terms of which Microsoft and Mr. Icahn made clear they were unwilling to negotiate," Yahoo! said, stressing the company's firm belief that the proposers were not willing to cut a deal in favor of the stockholders.
Moreover, the deal itself is not seen as complying with the company's best interests, because the search business, as Yahoo!'s representatives say, has a higher value than what has been estimated by Microsoft. Plus, there is also the fact that search engineers are continuously working and, thus, increasing the value of the intellectual property of Yahoo!. Another reason for the rejection was that a partial acquisition of the company would do away with its chances of a further total buy.
By calling Microsoft's behavior "erratic and unpredictable," Yahoo! tightened the chances of a future bid. But that's probably what it was after in the first place, to be left alone in order to continue the talks with Google. The agreement between the two companies, which implies the display of Google ads on Yahoo!'s search results pages, will get the thumbs up or down from the Justice Department's antitrust division this week.