Thursday, June 12, 2008

Yahoo Ends Talks With Microsoft, Nears Search-Ad Deal with Google - WSJ.com

Looks like Carl Icahn is having a bad day...

Microsoft Corp. has definitively abandoned its pursuit of a deal with Yahoo Inc., people familiar the matter said, opening the way for Yahoo to complete a search advertising pact with rival Google Inc.

Microsoft told Yahoo it was no longer interested in a pursuing a takeover, even at the $33 per share price it offered for the Internet company last month. Shares of Yahoo plunged on the news, dropping 11%, or $2.88, to $23.27 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

The decision likely spells the end of Microsoft's five-month pursuit of Yahoo, a deal it characterized at the time as essential to its strategy of countering rival Google. In retrospect, Microsoft's unsolicited approach appears to have badly backfired. Instead of winning Yahoo's huge audience and online search capabilities Microsoft has driven its quarry into the arms of its arch enemy -- Google.

Yahoo Ends Talks With Microsoft, Nears Search-Ad Deal with Google - WSJ.com

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