Ballmer (Microsoft), who was visited personally over the weekend in Seattle by Yang & Filo (Yahoo!), was presented - as I understand it - with a ridiculous $37/share "take or leave it" and, frankly, semi-reluctant offer ... and it was summarily rejected by Ballmer, along with a formal withdrawal of the current offer (see below).
Yahoo is not worth more than the $33/share offer they had from Microsoft ($47.5B), IMHO.
While Microsoft needs Yahoo (to start actually making money in its internet/search/advertising division to try to compete with Google), Yahoo shareholders definitely need them more ... I say hang tight this summer for another Round or two, and perhaps even a play by Google itself IMHO.
Haha, yeah it was pretty ridiculous.. If I was ballmer, I wouldn't have even offered $25 share for the company.. If the company made the same, as they have been making - yahoo.. It would have took Microsoft about 60-120 years to payoff the takeover bid.. Ridiculous..
Good thing microsoft didn't buy yahoo.. They can just build the best search engine on the web and market it, with the 44billion.. Which I don't know why they don't
they were just seeing each other - more like flirting. But yahoo kept nagging and ordering the most expensive thing on the menu - then wouldn't put out at the end of the date - I dont blame microsoft for walking away...
Each of the companies mentioned (Yahoo, Microsoft, Google) and even Apple have their business styles. A merger would require a substantial amount of work just to finalize the new business structure. Look at the differences between how each company manages their work force. Apple is known for keeping their employees in line, not allowing much room for new ideas from the guys on the bottom of the totem pole. Microsoft on the other hand offers a little bit of flexibility, but nothing that effects the core systems. Google has the opposite stance. Not only is Google known for accepting new ideas from employees, but this freedom is also open to much of the online world.
With that said, compare each of these companies, and think about how much would need to change if a merger were to occur. Which of these methods do you believe has the most potential, and which has the smallest risk? If you were "the guy in charge", which method would you choose?
In my opinion this was for the best. I feel that this was MS's last real chance to be able to compete in the SE industry.
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Ouch! 
Google itself IMHO. 
mine.
