Yahoo Wants More Money From Microsoft
By: John Vinson
It seems that the online search engine world has turned into a huge soap opera. There’s the main villain (Google), and everyone else is scrambling to keep up by forming relationships through mergers. I’m pretty sure that was a close synopsis to a certain episode of “Passions”.
The drama is really heating up on the relationship between Yahoo and Microsoft. The computer giant, Microsoft has been trying to lure the search engine veteran Yahoo back to its’ bachelor bad for months. They keep offering them drinks, but Yahoo wants Cristal, not Bud Light. Ok, I’ll stop relating the aptly name “Microhoo” news to soap opera shows and bar pick-up scenarios.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the Microsoft-Yahoo situation, it’s been pretty easy to follow. Yahoo wants to be bought, they just want the right amount of money to be put on the offering table. The problem is, when you hold out for more money, the list of interested parties starts to decrease. The list is so small, that only one company is interested in Yahoo, which of course is Microsoft. And although they are interested, they still haven’t given a price large enough for Yahoo to sell out.
The latest drama coming out of this situation came by way of a personalized letter from Steve Ballmer himself. For anyone not “in the know”, Steve Baller is the CEO of Microsoft. In the letter, Ballmer voiced his frustration of Yahoo’s continuing denial of Microsoft’s bid. Further on in the letter, Ballmer gives Yahoo an ultimatum; that if Yahoo doesn’t accept the offer within three weeks, they will launch a hostile takeover. While “hostile takeover”, makes you think of something like Microsoft troops invading Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, California complex, the truth is alittle less sexy. Their hostile takeover would mean, that Microsoft would take their case directly to Yahoo’s shareholders, instead of the CEO.
This whole ordeal, really does remind me of some elementary school drama. Microsoft wants Yahoo to share something they have, Yahoo doesn’t want to share so Microsoft is going to tattle on them. All the while Google is just sitting back on their high and mighty throne, laughing at the two companies trying to come together.