Microsoft wants Yahoo. Yahoo thinks Microsoft is nerdy and smells funny and would much rather be purchased by a cuter company who uses deodorant and plays football.
Why else do you think the search giant ignored Microsoft’s Saturday deadline for wrapping up an acquisition agreement the Redmond company really, really, wants?
You know the story: Microsoft wanted to purchase Yahoo for a price well-above its current market value. Yahoo said “No, not enough money.” Microsoft said “Yes, or else.” Yahoo said “La la la can’t hear you.” Microsoft said “Agree to it by Saturday or we’ll go hostile on your ass.” Yahoo said “Did you hear something? Must be the wind.” Microsoft said “You suck!” then ran to its room crying. Sorta.
Microsoft’s execs have been threatening to purchase Yahoo in a hostile takeover via proxies if the web company didn’t agree to the deal by Saturday. But as the deadline approached and Yahoo seemed unflinching, they toned down their rhetoric, going from “Big Tough Guy With Lots of Money” to “Defeated Child on the Playground.”
“Unless we make progress with Yahoo towards an agreement by this weekend, we will reconsider our alternatives. We will provide updates as appropriate next week, these alternatives clearly including taking an offer to the Yahoo shareholders, or to withdraw our proposal and focus on other opportunities, both organic and inorganic,” [Microsoft CFO Chris] Liddell said then.
Seems like the hoopla is finally coming to a head — either Microsoft will take the next steps in executing a hostile takeover, or they’ll give up altogether and pretend like it never happened.
There’s a great piece at the Mothership about the whole acquisition business that’s definitely worth a read — it reveals a lot about Microsoft’s intentions with the bid, and their surprise and frustration at Yahoo’s reluctance to accept. But once again it seems like Big Red is all talk and no walk — which, in this case, may actually be a good thing for users who don’t want to see the tech industry’s garbage disposal obliterate Yahoo’s great array of online services.
