Microsoft Sets Three Week Deadline for Yahoo! In Public Letter 175
An anonymous reader writes "In a letter sent today, Microsoft writes to Yahoo's board of directors to tell them that they would like to 'negotiate a definitive agreement on a combination of our companies.' Their message is a combination of friend and foe: 'If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders.'"
Well, it was nice knowing you Yahoo... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know if this is good or bad, but time will tell... The shareholders hear only the sounds that money makes, and they are going to sell out quickly, especially in the midst of this recession.
Re:And then there were N..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:oh teh noes!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Shit or get off the pot. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yahoo is thought of (or was, during the boom) almost like Google is today. It's hard to build something from nothing and then have someone threaten to take it away like this. MS is strong arming them. They're basically saying "Sell or we'll take you over by rousing your stock holders" which is just business... but you have to really consider it from the perspective of the people who have created and grown with the company from the beginning.
If I were the yahoo management, I would be fighting MS with everything I have and looking for an alternate deal to screw them.
Re:Well, it was nice knowing you Yahoo... (Score:2, Insightful)
Shareholders are supposed to sell ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Shareholders are supposed to sell when they receive an advantageous offer. Advantageous being a return that is more likely greater than holding the stock. What do you think shareholders are, some sort of fanboys? More importantly, why do think the founders of the company went public and brought in shareholders, it was so that the founders could pocket a lot of money. So now the story that the founders sold to the shareholders turns out not to be true, and the shareholders are looking for their best option. This is the way public financing works.
The motivation to sell in this specific case is not the recession but a failed business model.
FWIW, the midst of a recession is usually the time to buy. The onset of a recession is usually the time to sell.
Re:Shit or get off the pot. (Score:3, Insightful)
I would imagine Jerry Yang finds himself opposed to many of Microsoft's core operating principles.
Undoubtedly, he will cringe when he types yahoo.com into his browser a few years from now.
Re:Well, it was nice knowing you Yahoo... (Score:3, Insightful)
Time to find another place to host my discussion groups, and a new chat network.
Re:Well, it was nice knowing you Yahoo... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Well, it was nice knowing you Yahoo... (Score:3, Insightful)
What gutter demographic are they looking for with this? They should look at their absolute cr#$ tabloid journalism and lack of any substantial news as probable reasons why people choose yahoo over msn/hotmail.
Instead they'll take over a company and wonder why it crashes in to the ground in a few years time.
Re:Shit or get off the pot. (Score:5, Insightful)
What is becoming apparant now is that they really just wanted all the money they got from selling the company to the general public, they didnt actually want other people to be the real owners of the company. You cant have your cake and eat it too, if you sell controlling shares of your company you have to accept that you cant just do whatever you want to with it, you have an obligation to act in the best interests of the shareholders. (the real owners of the company) If the founder of a company cant accept that he should just keep his company private.
Re:Well, it was nice knowing you Yahoo... (Score:3, Insightful)
Fortunately, for Yahoo shareholders Microsoft's stock is so diluted and volumetrically reached a point of saturation [they really should have taken Jackson's ruling and split into 4 separate corporations] that the upside of stock price potential is virtually within +/- 10 ticker points.
If Yahoo shareholders are looking for a solid Dividend Stock they'd already own Microsoft. They are looking for a ROI that has a large upside and Yahoo has that leverage.
Re:Shit or get off the pot. (Score:5, Insightful)
They're basically saying "Sell or we'll take you over by rousing your stock holders" which is just business... but you have to really consider it from the perspective of the people who have created and grown with the company from the beginning.
Boo-hoo. Those poor, poor billionaires. Their lives will have been meaningless.
Don't want to be subject to hostile takeovers? Don't go public. And good luck making a few billion.
Driving the price down (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Well, it was nice knowing you Yahoo... (Score:3, Insightful)
Incidentally, one of the headlines on yahoo right now is "Find inexpensive date ideas" so its not like they are really all that different.
Re:And then there were N..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Shareholders are supposed to sell ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, more shareholders should behave as what they are -- partial owners of the company, and therefore do what they believe is right for the company, the public, the environment, as they see fit, not just the bottom line, but they can buy or sell the stock whenever they like if they feel like doing so and have a seller/buyer available to do so.
Basically, if most of your shareholders don't want the company sold because they think its a bad idea even if it IS financially advantageous, then good for them, and it won't sell.
Re:Shareholders are supposed to sell ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:And then there were N..... (Score:5, Insightful)
a faltering business model isn't generally associated with a company that is reporting 15% growth in revenues in the states, 20% in the EU and 30% in places like China - each quarter.
Re:What does Yahoo have that MS wants? (Score:5, Insightful)
about 16 million unique visitors to its web sites each month.
Re:Antitrust someone? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Well, it was nice knowing you Yahoo... (Score:3, Insightful)
No, it ain't, because the value of MS shares varies according to the whim of the market. Now, that could mean that $X worth (nominal, at the instantaneous market price) could be even better than $X, or it could be worse. Certainly if a lot of people thought that "you can just sell them the instant you get them", they'd be worse than cash because the sudden dump of shares for sale on the market would drag the price down. (You've also got to figure in broker fees, etc).
There's also the consideration that if it's MS that's offering the shares, then they're doing it from their own holdings -- thus diluting the value of existing stockholder-held MSFT shares.
All this uncertainty means risk, whis is a factor by which you have to discount the value of those MSFT shares being offered vs the "equivalent" value in cash. Personally, I'd rather just have the cash.
Re:Shit or get off the pot. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Well, it was nice knowing Zimbra too... (Score:2, Insightful)
You should have bolded this part. I skimmed over it twice before it hit me how much it means.
Zimbra (Score:3, Insightful)
Zimbra [bfccomputing.com] is the significant viable competition to Exchange, which is Microsoft's stranglehold on 'enterprise' computing. This group [freezimbranow.org] would like the government to stop the deal on anti-competitiveness grounds.
I think Yahoo! knew what would happen when they bought Zimbra and they know how important it is ($$$) for Microsoft to own it.