14 DAY TRIAL // Having had its moderately hostile takeover plan thwarted by the latest announcement about the postponing of the date for board nominalizations, Steve Ballmer reacted, and did so quickly. What's raising some $3.1 billion overnight? Almost nothing, if you're in a high ranking position at Microsoft, apparently.
With the date of the nominations possibly pushed back as late as the 12th of July, Steve Ballmer is thinking about raising the bid and going straight at the shareholders with the offer. "Ballmer is just one of many highly emotional people involved in this," a source close to both the companies told the New York Post. "Microsoft has been trying to avoid going completely hostile, but now it is going to get completely hostile."
The bid will be changed from the current half money half stock to all cash, and the $3.1 billion mentioned above is exactly the difference between what the offer was worth when it was initially made and its value now, after stock has tanked hard. The recent rumors of Yahoo! negotiating with Time Warner also played a very important part in the decision-making process of the Microsoft Chief Executive Officer.
Having the offer back at what it was will prove very difficult for Jerry Yang to fight in front of his shareholders, who in a vast majority said that it would be in their best interest if Yahoo! accepted the bid. With word of Google having been advised to overbid for just under 20 percent of the Sunnyvale-based company's shares, predicting a clear course of actions is very hazy, if not impossible altogether.
Nevertheless, after the announcement of the board nominations being pushed back, Yang must have thought he had averted a huge immediate threat. It turns out he only made room for an even greater one, that will be out of his hands.
