Posted on Monday, April 07 2008 @ 3:15 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
About two months ago Microsoft launched a hostile take over bid on Yahoo but so far it has been a fruitless attempt as Yahoo rejected the offer, claiming the bid was too low. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is getting impatient and has decided to send a public letter to Yahoo's Board of Directors. Ballmer says Yahoo has three more weeks to consider the offer, otherwise Microsoft will take the case directly to Yahoo's shareholders.
During these two months of inactivity, the Internet has continued to march on, while the public equity markets and overall economic conditions have weakened considerably, both in general and for other Internet-focused companies in particular. At the same time, public indicators suggest that Yahoo!’s search and page view shares have declined. Finally, you have adopted new plans at the company that have made any change of control more costly.
By any fair measure, the large premium we offered in January is even more significant today. We believe that the majority of your shareholders share this assessment, even after reviewing your public disclosures relating to your future prospects.
Given these developments, we believe now is the time for our respective companies to authorize teams to sit down and negotiate a definitive agreement on a combination of our companies that will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders, creating a more efficient and competitive company that will provide greater value and service to our customers. If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo! board. The substantial premium reflected in our initial proposal anticipated a friendly transaction with you. If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal.
You can read the full letter
at Microsoft's site.
