Microsoft Staying Firm at $31 Share for Yahoo!

The WSJ seems to put to rest the idea that Microsoft will sweeten its $44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo! Microsoft feels that it can wait and is prepare to hunker down and battle till the end. They feel amid the turbulent economic times that their offer is more than fair.

Microsoft claims that it doesn't want to bid against itself. They have a point. Up until now there have been no other serious offers or alternatives that have materialized. Yahoo! has failed to garner the support needed to compete with the semi-hostile takeover. Their recent moves suggest that Yahoo! is merely trying to buy some time.

These are probably normal negotiation tactics and we'll see if in fact Microsoft does sweeten the deal to make this happen. So far the two sides have only had one meeting. If anything serious is going to happen more meetings need to take place. If they can't get a decent dialog going now how do they expect the merger to be successful?

Yahoo already formally rejected Microsoft's offer on Feb. 10. saying it "substantially undervalues" the Internet company. Though Microsoft's cash-and-stock bid was initially worth nearly $45 billion, a decline in Microsoft's shares has lowered the offer's value to about $42 billion, or $29.25 a share as of today.

Yahoo! seems to want at least $40 a share but most in the market are assuming an offer in the mid-$30 range for this deal to go through.

StacyNU

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Apple Should Buy Yahoo!

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