14 DAY TRIAL // It is official! Microsoft is no longer interested in acquiring the Internet pioneering company, or at least this is what Jerry Yang, chief executive of Yahoo wants us to believe. At the "All Things Digital" conference organized by the Wall Street Journal in the Southern California city of Carlsbad, Yang also wanted to make it clear that Yahoo is "not under siege", as a response to the stockholder revolt speculations, which we presented to you a few days back.
"Microsoft is no longer interested in buying the company and they are discussing various other partnerships with us", said Yang. This means that although the Redmond company doesn't want to buy Yahoo it still intends to partner with it, in order to compete with the Mountain View search giant, Google. And it appears that Yahoo is open to discussions with Microsoft.
It also seems that Microsoft doesn't want to take advantage of the current quarrel within Yahoo's board of directors and will try to work up a collaboration with the Sunnyvale-based company. Microsoft's February 1 bid of 44.6 billion dollars was meant to create a better competitor for Google, which is currently the top dog in Internet search and advertising.
Apparently the current talks between the two companies are centered on letting Microsoft handle Yahoo's online advertising in the hope that it can pump more cash out of the promising revenue source. This could ultimately serve Yahoo's board of directors, currently facing an undesirable showdown with Carl Icahn.
Carl Icahn has reportedly bought a stake of more than four percent in the California firm, which he intends to use in order to take down the board members whom he accused of not being able to take advantage of Microsoft's offer. Apparently this was also the reason why Yahoo's annual board meeting was canceled.
"The perception of us being a company under siege is just not accurate", Yang said, when questioned about the future of the Sunnyvale company.