Our contacts at Microsoft seem pretty certain that they will, at some point, in the not to distant future, successfully takeover Yahoo!, but as the web firm rejected a new takeover offer from the IT giant, it seems certain that any Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo! is going to be hostile.
Yahoo!'s chairman and CEO, Roy Bostock and Jerry Yang, yesterday hit out at Microsoft after their CEO Steve Ballmer accused the net firm's directors of refusing to co-operate during takeover talks, and threatened to stage a hostile takeover of the web company if they continued to be uncooperative.
But in an open letter, Bostock and Yang said yesterday that Ballmer was "mischaracterising the nature of our discussions" adding: "We have had constructive conversations together regarding a variety of topics, including integration and regulatory issues. Your comment that we have refused to enter into negotiations to conclude an agreement are particularly curious given we have already rejected your initial proposal. Moreover, Steve, you personally attended two of these meetings and could have advanced discussions in any way you saw fit."
They concluded by saying that talk of a hostile takeover was "counterproductive and inconsistent with your stated objective of a friendly transaction". Although Bostock and Yang did leave the door open for future discussions, saying that the company was still open to "all alternatives ... this includes a transaction with Microsoft if it represents a price that fully recognises the value of Yahoo! on a standalone basis and ... is superior to our other alternatives", it is widely assumed that Microsoft will already be sounding out Yahoo!'s shareholders regarding the option of cutting Bostock and Yang out of the equation and going the hostile takeover route.