No amount of cajoling or coaxing made Yahoo accede to Microsoft’s demand for acquisition. Heartbroken, Microsoft has finally given up its plan to acquire Yahoo. It will instead tread a solitary path to achieve its goal of increasing its share in online advertising, albeit at a slower pace.
26 April 2008 was the deadline set by Microsoft for Yahoo to accept its $44.6 billion offer for acquisition. The unresponsive Yahoo made Microsoft threaten the company with a hostile take offer. However, with Yahoo remaining undeterred, Microsoft agreed to raise its offer by $5 billion to $47.5 billion or $33 per share. But Yahoo remained adamant and demanded $53 billion. A desperate chief executive of Microsoft Steve Ballmer in a letter to Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang formally withdrew the offer in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders.
With no further possibility of Microsoft acquiring Yahoo, what will this mean for the internet companies? The possibility of hostile take over of Yahoo by Microsoft is still open, although Mr. Ballmer has officially denied such possibility in the near future. The possibility of Google approaching Yahoo with a higher bid than Microsoft cannot be ruled out. In such an eventuality, Google’s monopoly will expand further making things difficult for Microsoft. As for the immediate affect, Yahoo will see some downslide in its share prices with Microsoft walking away from the deal.
Source: BBC
