Battered Yahoo Admits It Overplayed Hand; Open To New Microsoft Talks

"How's this for a quick cave? Less than 48 hours after Microsoft (MSFT) pulled the plug on its Yahoo (YHOO) offer, Yahoo has already admitted publicly that it would have been willing to do a deal below $37. It has also already said that it would be happy to reopen talks with Microsoft.

Why the backtrack?

Because Yahoo employees and shareholders are dismayed by the collapse of the deal.

I'm extremely disappointed in Jerry Yang," said Gordon Crawford, a portfolio manager at Capital Research Global Investors, which owns over 6% of Yahoo's shares. "I think he overplayed a weak hand. And I'm even more disappointed in the independent directors who were not responsive to the needs of independent shareholders." writes alleyinsider.com

[condorstrike]

And Microsoft now will move in for the kill, too bad Google would have too many antitrust law problems due to advertisement monopoly because that would be a sweet merger, and a big kick in the but to Microsoft.

[RealityCheck]

Agreed. Showing such weak resolve in less than 2 days will leave Yahoo very vulnerable. They are pretty much done for now. On the plus side there might be interesting spin-offs opening around from the departing talent after the takedown occurs.

[Lets-Game]

industry - technology :)

[DJ]

They've got 5x the market share of MSN, and are far more profitable. To give in now would be a huge mistake. They need to think long term instead of getting phased by a temporary stock dip.

[Captain Tuttle]

It's the only chance they have to compete with Google.

[gnothe1]

DJ would you just shut up!! everything dealing with MS is BAD according to you!! evidently they NEED MS because now they WANNA talk an ADMITTED they did the wrong thing. so that means THEY know more about their business an what they NEED then you so just get over yourself an the hatred you have for MS.

[xboxme]

the press mentioned that jerry was a poker player and that is deal was similiar to what he was use to. i guess he's not a good one. don't quit your day job buddy! know when to fold!

[Z F1GHT3RS]

i told you so.
yahooooooooo is not worth what they asked

[bootsielon]

Now Microsoft will give them even less, but hey, who visits yahoo anyway? Perhaps we'll see some decent competition for google now.

[Z F1GHT3RS]

exactly my point......
if i search something my main 2 search engines are in order;
1) GOOGLE(no suprise there)
2) LIVE SEARCH

i never visit yahoo, well when i say never i mean not often at least.

[Bladestar]

mmmm.... just like I predicted... now they are begging microsoft to come back... microsoft shouldn't... they should wait at least 6 months until google shares hit record low... board of directors are given the boot..... I think the only thing worst than an anti-corporate/microsoft fanboy on the board of director is an anti-corporate/microsoft fanboy on the board of director that does not have business sense.

[zonetrooper5]

MS and yahoo siding together would be a good merger for both companies actually. Google have a monopoly upon the search engine part and most of advertising.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

I'm tired of these companies overvaluing a sinking ship. Yahoo although a great site for resouces is not a great search engine. It's user base comes from old users, not new and if anything is shrinking in market share. MS should bid less now than what they offered before. Yahoo is desperate!

edit: Meant to reply to Bladestar

[iceman2929]

lol and this is when MSFT reduces the offer to 30$ a share...