Diana 5-8-2008 07:59
Yahoo! slides after Microsoft deal dies
Yahoo Inc. fell the most in almost two years on Nasdaq after Microsoft Corp. abandoned its $44.6 billion takeover of the Internet search company because executives couldn’t agree on a price.
Yahoo was cut to “sell” by Citigroup Inc. and ThinkPanmure LLC analysts, and the stock dropped as much as 20 percent. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said on May 3 he wasn’t prepared to pay the $37 a share Yahoo executives demanded. Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, offered $33.
Diana 5-8-2008 08:00
The move puts Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang under pressure to bring the share price near the $31 Microsoft first offered. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, owner of the No. 2 search engine, fell 32 percent in the year before Microsoft’s offer. Bigger rival Google Inc. expanded revenue more than three times faster than Yahoo last quarter.
“Google is coming on strong on all fronts, and Yahoo has to figure out a game plan to keep from getting swallowed up,” Endpoint Technologies Associates President Roger Kay said in an interview with Bloomberg Radio. “Yahoo has to pick up the pieces and march forward with what it has in hand.”
BLOOMBERG