Report: Yahoo directors hash over Microsoft's merger deadline

Yahoo's board of directors on Sunday reportedly hashed over Microsoft's three-week deadline to close its mega-merger bid, according to a report in the Financial Times

The report did not note whether the directors would authorize the Internet pioneer to engage in formal negotiations with Microsoft. (On Sunday evening, The Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo on Monday would issue a rebuttal to the new deadline.)

Microsoft launched an unsolicited bid for Yahoo on Feb. 1, in a deal initially valued at $31 a share. But Yahoo rejected the offer as undervaluing the company.

And while Yahoo's investors would also like a higher bid, they also want the deal done and are growing concerned, one major Yahoo institutional investor told CNET News.com Saturday. And should Microsoft engage in a proxy fight with Yahoo that ultimately goes before a shareholder vote and is successful, Yahoo's management and its current board would, in essence, lose control over the company's destiny.

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This institutional investor has also previously told Yahoo's independent directors he may be willing to support a new board, if they didn't engage in formal talks with Microsoft. But such threats may not be enough to push Yahoo to engage with Microsoft without a higher bid.

"(Yahoo) wants to maximize value for shareholders and that is what we're going to do," a source told CNET News.com on Sunday.

Take note: Some of Yahoo's directors have faced proxy fights before, so they're battle-tested.

[Sumatra-Bosch]

Jerry, It's a Stupid Website. Take Your People, Walk & Watch It Collapse

Jerry, if the retarded bald guy from Duncan Hines wants it that bad, give it to him for $31 a share and enjoy watching the press rip him to shreds for destroying yet another company and opportunity as Yahoo! collapses into a dusty, shattered heap under MSFT slapstick management.<br /><br />You know what is going to happen, because it is already happening.<br /><br />Anyone already vested and with opportunities is already gone, going or spending all day on LinkedIN.com. The talent are running flat out straight into the windows, so afraid are they of being caught on the stairs when the Boy Fuhrer from Duncan Hines and his bug-eyed, goose-stepping minions arrive. <br /><br />Yahoo! was well past its prime. You can tell when a business has really outlived its value and usefulness when it is either bought by MSFT or it is sued by the DoJ for monopolistic business practices. So let it go and start the next big thing.<br /><br />Here's all that you will miss when you make that tired website nice and small in your rearview: <br /><br />The Boy Fuhrer from Duncan Hines bellowing in tired 1990s MBA-speak and completely irrelevant sports metaphors. <br /><br />A virtually empty building retaining a few guys on H1 Visas and no place to go, incompetent managers with no place to, employees with terminal diseases with no place to go without losing their medical coverage and the weird guys like Dwight from "The Office" shouting "Hail! Hail! Hail, to our new Microsoft Overlords!"<br /><br />A really bad replay of the engineering scene from "The Hunt from Red October" when the Americans take over the Russian submarine and have to figure out how to run the alien technology. One big difference: the American engineers were competent. BSD will baffle the MSFT crew and make them cry.<br /><br />Abject failure. MSFT has one trick: corner the boot loader through black-box contract. Without a monopoly enforced by some enduring legal mechanism, MSFT is completely helpless. MS-Yahoo! will be the Zune of Web portals. <br /><br />Jerry, take the money. You don't want to have to watch this.

[nmcphers]

Hmm....

If there is one thing that will make Microsoft truly vulnerable, it's this purchase of Yahoo. They will be sinking so much money in it they won't have the spare change to engage in as many loss leader areas as they are doing now. Their image will be tainted from the hostile take over, and I'm sure the best talents from Yahoo will leave. <br /><br />Should Microsoft come out of the merger unscathed though, then they will be in a good spot to control a lot of web technology. Yahoo has tons of services and partners. Even more than Google. And even though "The Boy Fuhrer from Duncan Hines" is stupid, he has people thinking for him behind the scenes. He didn't come up with the buyout idea himself, some investment banker guy they hired did that. I'm sure he has a hidden card up his sleeve.

[Lee in San Diego]

They may just want the brand

Maybe MicroSoft doesn't care about Yahoo as a business and they <br />just want the brand. The general public probably doesn't know <br />about this deal, if it isn't sports or Hollywood gossip then it isn't <br />news, they just use Yahoo and don't care about what is behind the <br />scenes.