Bill Gates reiterates Microsoft's Yahoo-less path
Bill Gates to dealmakers: cool your heels.
With its multibillion-dollar Yahoo merger bid yanked from the table, the Microsoft chairman said in a Tokyo press conference on Wednesday that the software giant has no immediate plans to jump on another deal, according to an Associated Press report.
"At this point, Microsoft is focused on its independent strategy," Gates said during the press conference.
The Microsoft founder recounted how the Redmond giant had spent a lot of energy on trying to wrap up a deal with Yahoo, but it ultimately decided that it was better to leave it behind.
Gates reiterated Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's plan: pursue an independent path to grow the company's search advertising and online-services business.
That Plan B, as outlined by CNET News.com's Ina Fried, could include such things as beefing up its engineering ranks and looking at other business partnerships.
Some of those partnerships could include Facebook, in which Microsoft is already a minority investor, and MySpace.com.
Gates is the latest Microsoft executive to chime in on the software giant's future plans. Microsoft's Windows Live General Manager Brian Hall covered such ground Tuesday at the Merrill Lynch Technology Conference, where he addressed investors.
The more Microsoft distances itself from the Yahoo negotiating table, the more the Internet search pioneer's stock will likely feel the effects.
Shares of Yahoo were down 1.87 percent, to $25.25, in early-morning trading Wednesday.
Dawn Kawamoto covers enterprise security and financial news relating to technology for CNET News. E-mail Dawn. 
- by benjaminstraight July 15, 2008 4:38 PM PDT
- benjamin straight writes: The King has spoken.
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