The end of Microhoo? So says Ballmer
Steve Ballmer’s finally put the lid on any more Yahoo acquisition rumours by saying Microsoft was “done” with its attempt to acquire Yahoo.
Reuters reported: "There’s nothing under discussion between the two of us," Ballmer told investors. So much for Carl Icahn’s bluster and attempt to move a hostile takeover of the board. Icahn probably proved to be his own worst enemy in the move by creating negative publicity. It didn’t help Microsoft’s image either when it gave Icahn its support, effectively alienating the board and perhaps a large number of Yahoo shareholders.
""There is this huge, huge, huge new opportunity around the Internet and online and we have to embrace that opportunity and invest in that opportunity," Ballmer said.
Perhaps another reason behind the quick getaway from a second bid is Microsoft’s falling share prices. With the software company’s stocks seeing shedding during the whole Icahn debacle, perhaps the purchase seemed less of a good idea after all.
Ballmer still kept some bets open with this mickey of a statement: “Does that mean that nobody will ever talk to anybody again? I suspect that the answer to that question is also no. It’s a long time and a big world.”
Microhoo was not a great idea. Make that, Microhoo was never a great idea. Microsoft can’t fix an ailing company just by buying it over. Remember the Time Warner-AOL fiasco? After that venture, both parties lost value as well as investor and consumer confidence.
Yahoo is struggling to remain relevant, and it should be allowed to forge its own new path in the wilderness. Investors like Icahn don’t understand that you can’t sell off an Internet company in pieces, that Yahoo is not merely the sum of its parts.
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