Microsoft walks away from Yahoo

Software giant Microsoft has dropped its three-month-old bid to buy internet firm Yahoo because the two sides cannot agree on an acceptable sale price.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer formally withdrew the offer in a letter to Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang.

Mr Ballmer said Microsoft had raised its original offer from $44.6bn to $47.5bn (£24.1bn) - $33 per share.

But he added that Yahoo had insisted on at least $53bn, or $37 a share - more than Microsoft was prepared to pay.

The software giant had wanted to do a deal to be able to compete with Google, which dominates the lucrative market for internet advertising.

This market was worth $40bn in 2007 and is predicted to double to $80bn by 2010.

'Distraction'

In his letter to Mr Yang, which has been posted on the Microsoft website, Mr Ballmer said: "We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo and the market as a whole.

"Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5bn, Yahoo has not moved toward accepting our offer.

"After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal."

Yahoo maintained that Microsoft had offered too little to buy the company.
In a statement issued after Microsoft's withdrawal, Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock dismissed the unsolicited bid as a "distraction".
Microsoft's shares closed on Friday virtually unchanged at $29.24. Yahoo's shares were $1.85 higher at $28.67 amid expectations of a higher Microsoft offer.

Source:- BBC NEWS | Business | Microsoft walks away from Yahoo

 

[KingOfChaos]

I personally believe that Microsoft should be barred from consuming anymore computer/software companies. They already own enough ground in the IT business as it is.

 

[z3r010]

I've never been quite sure what to make of the deal, as somebody that publishes online ads I would welcome so competition to Google, but buying Yahoo who's search share is as near to nothing as makes no odds and their advertising delivery system which has been in beta (should be alpha) for the last few years is just crap just doesn't add up to me.

Just to give everybody an idea of how spent a force the yahoo search engine is and how much Google own the online search/advertising market, here are the search engine referral stats for the last 30 days for this site.

Google 1,117,302 visitors sent
Yahoo 12,544
Live 8,984
MSN 5,455
AOL 4,529

TBH even if M$ bought Yahoo and AOL, they still would not make any significant impact on the market.

 

[.Joe]

I've never been quite sure what to make of the deal, as somebody that publishes online ads I would welcome so competition to Google, but buying Yahoo who's search share is as near to nothing as makes no odds and their advertising delivery system which has been in beta (should be alpha) for the last few years is just crap just doesn't add up to me.

Just to give everybody an idea of how spent a force the yahoo search engine is and how much Google own the online search/advertising market, here are the search engine referral stats for the last 30 days for this site.

Google 1,117,302 visitors sent
Yahoo 12,544
Live 8,984
MSN 5,455
AOL 4,529

TBH even if M$ bought Yahoo and AOL, they still would not make any significant impact on the market.

Dang z3r010, those are some big numbers. When I'm out in about in the world, people ask other people questions and the answer is quickly becoming, "google it".

Google even has a SMS (text) inquiry from your cell phone. Even if you are not "web enabled" you can get the top result from google by texting, without the quotes: "web yourquestionhere" to google (or 466453). You can even get the current weather conditions from google via text on your phone, without the quotes by texting "w' plus your city/state or US zipcode, for example "w 10101" sent to 466453 would send you back a text message with the current conditions for that zip code, plus a 72 hour forecast. The google web site has some more voodoo you can do via text message and interact with their search engine.

It's no wonder that google is the top place to do searches. I know when I have a question, I google it. I'll sometimes visit the other search engines, but they rarely have anything new that google hasn't already indexed.

Dang, should have bought google stock when it first came out. I could be retired by now

 

[thefrecklepuny]

I personally believe that Microsoft should be barred from consuming anymore computer/software companies. They already own enough ground in the IT business as it is

The same can be said of Wal-Mart who are the biggest public corporation (by revenue) in the world with global operations. They were allowed to buy British based Asda a few years ago.

And what about Adobe? With the purchase of Macromedia, this makes them the biggest software publisher with regards to print, imaging, vector, publishing, document and web software.

 

[softwareguy256]

MS needs to focus on quality control. Their new softwares are buggy as hell. MS was good in the 90's but I don't know what these new employees are doing...

 

[dmex]

MS needs to focus on quality control. Their new softwares are buggy as hell. MS was good in the 90's but I don't know what these new employees are doing...

Try Linux then compare the differences in quality control, I think there doing a very good job compared to the competition. It takes a little while to get used to how Vista works but once you get the hang of it its defiantly way better using than anything else around.

dmex

 

[FightingScallion]

MS needs to focus on quality control. Their new softwares are buggy as hell. MS was good in the 90's but I don't know what these new employees are doing...

Try Linux then compare the differences in quality control, I think there doing a very good job compared to the competition. It takes a little while to get used to how Vista works but once you get the hang of it its defiantly way better using than anything else around.

dmex

That's the truth. I'm even getting annoyed with XP these days, and that's where I learned how to make a computer dance on command.

And don't get me starting on Mac OSes.

 

[AvatarOfTheShip]

I don't want to seem like an apologist for Microsoft, but they seem to me to attract a huge amount of flack, both deserved and undeserved, but in response to the point that MS should not be allowed to consume any more of the industry, I want to know how come everyone stands by with vacant smiles on their faces as Google eats the world whole. Also how come $teve Job$ always gets away with his spray-on sincerity and phoney 'down-with-the-kids'-ness

 

[FightingScallion]

I don't want to seem like an apologist for Microsoft, but they seem to me to attract a huge amount of flack, both deserved and undeserved, but in response to the point that MS should not be allowed to consume any more of the industry, I want to know how come everyone stands by with vacant smiles on their faces as Google eats the world whole. Also how come $teve Job$ always gets away with his spray-on sincerity and phoney 'down-with-the-kids'-ness

You've got a point. If anyone ever had a computer monopoly, it was Apple in the 80s and early 90s. Worse than that, there was no such thing as third-party equipment or software.

 

[softwareguy256]

Guys, XP SP3 fiasco was slashdotted today. Peoples machines won't even boot after installing this! This is the kind of quality that MS is putting out these days. Lack of testing and removing features seems to be the new standard at MS.

 

[AvatarOfTheShip]

Exactly - the trouble is, there are two sides to this argument, one of which most people seem unwilling to understand; Apple's idea, the closed architecture model, to a certain extent guarantees stability and consistency, whereas Microsoft's open architecture philosophy allows you to do whatever the hell you want, use equipment at your own discretion- but also at your own risk. This is the bit people don't like. They want to put esoteric hard- and software in, but then start crying for Mummy and blaming Microsoft when things go wrong.

 

[dmex]

Exactly - the trouble is, there are two sides to this argument, one of which most people seem unwilling to understand; Apple's idea, the closed architecture model, to a certain extent guarantees stability and consistency, whereas Microsoft's open architecture philosophy allows you to do whatever the hell you want, use equipment at your own discretion- but also at your own risk. This is the bit people don't like. They want to put esoteric hard- and software in, but then start crying for Mummy and blaming Microsoft when things go wrong.

AvatarOfTheShip, Use a more appropiate font size in the future....



The storys I have read so far about XP-SP3 all seem to just blindly blame SP3 and have zero infomation about any errors... It seems more the users fault for installing crapware/spyware and using illlegitimate pirated XP copys than anything SP3 could do...
The XP newsgroups and forums are dead quiet and I dont see any evidence to backup anything the "press" is saying right now...I think they just expected SP3 to make everyones XP fail then heard somone say it failed, ran a few storys then the rest followed replaying the storys like a broken tape player over and over again....but hey the press are network administrators arnt they?? so they would know its making everyones computer fail and the cause and let me know like Microsoft does..oh wait Microsoft havnt because there isnt any issues yet...

I hate the press...

don't forget Microsoft has to use there own software too and I doubt they would expect there own company to use SP3 if it was causing the type of problems the press would have us believe.

Everyone should make up there own minds on SP3 instead of blindly believing some Internet story.

 

[d0od]

it's still an oversight that is a bit unacceptable.

 

[johngalt]

The storys I have read so far about XP-SP3 all seem to just blindly blame SP3 and have zero infomation about any errors... It seems more the users fault for installing crapware/spyware and using illlegitimate pirated XP copys than anything SP3 could do...

Hmmm - this sounds like someone is talking about Vista as well....

 

[dmex]

Hmmm - this sounds like someone is talking about Vista as well....

I dont see one story from a trained technician clamming SP3 is causing issues, most of the FUD coming from news or other sources has just been users supplying completely wrong information to some forum or website and spreading it like fire.

Steven

 

[johngalt]

That's what I meant Dmex - a lot of the FUD about Vista is because people don't know what to do, or worse, expect that problems with device drivers / OEM installed software is *Vista's* fault....

 

[dmex]

That's what I meant Dmex - a lot of the FUD about Vista is because people don't know what to do, or worse, expect that problems with device drivers / OEM installed software is *Vista's* fault....

lol yeah theres lots of users that come here with the infobug then instead of doing something about it they just blame Microsoft It gets annoying to watch poeople conplain when its clear it was there own fault from the beginning.

Steven

 

[johngalt]

Or, worse, the OEM's fault - which, strangely, I never see people blaming either - it's always M4's / Vista's fault, not the OEMs' / Device manufacturer's fault.

 

[dmex]

LOL yeah OEM are even worse, least we can remove that virus software

Or, worse, the OEM's fault - which, strangely, I never see people blaming either - it's always M4's / Vista's fault, not the OEMs' / Device manufacturer's fault.