Even Microsoft Doesn’t Know If It Is Talking to Yahoo
What investors want to know about Microsoft and Yahoo these days is this: Are they, or aren’t they? Talking to each other about Microsoft’s $40 billion-plus takeover offer, that is.
Don’t expect enlightenment from the chatty executive ranks at Microsoft, who have made public statements galore even though, sadly for newshounds, their accounts of talks (or nontalks) appear to conflict.
CEO Steve Ballmer, a man who should know, said of the deal at a German technology conference, “There’s been a range of dialogue and there’s a range of alternatives being considered.” Then, after that shocker, he demurred, “I think it’s best for me not to get into the detail.”
Last Friday, Jean-Philippe Courtois, who heads the company’s international operations, said to an Agence France Press reporter that Microsoft and Yahoo are having “a very close dialogue.”
Wow, so they are talking, right? Not so fast.
Today at a Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, Microsoft finance chief Chris Liddell brought up, completely voluntarily, the company’s bid for Yahoo. Here is the conversation between Liddell and Morgan Stanley technology analyst Mary Meeker, from an SEC filing:
MARY MEEKER: In our remaining minute, anything that you’d like to address that we’ve missed?
CHRIS LIDDELL: Well, no one asked me about Yahoo, which is interesting. But I’m sure everyone is vaguely interested in it. You know, their –
MARY MEEKER: What was that? What was that?
CHRIS LIDDELL: Yeah. The small company that we’re looking to acquire. There’s no fundamental news. I mean, the — you know, the company has not yet formally responded to our offer. So you’ve seen the same press reports we have in terms of their view of it. You know, we continue to look at our options, and that’s something that I’m incredibly systematic about. That’s something that we look at, those alternatives, every week on the basis of what’s happening in the external market: what the opportunities for us are both in our customer business and through acquisition. So, you know, we’ll continue to look at those alternatives as we go forward, but there’s no news, per se, on Yahoo.
Deal Journal likes Liddell’s understatement that people might be “vaguely” interested in Microsoft’s acquisition of a “small company.” But, humor aside, Liddell’s comments don’t tell us about any talks. After all, Liddell only talks about a “formal” response. And what to make of his indication that he has heard about Yahoo’s opinion of the deal only in the media?
Microsoft’s executive team, true to its reputation as a group with a love for the hard sell, has been as eager to mention Yahoo as a teenage girl with a hunky new crush; the company has made four filings since Feb. 18 to disclose its executives’ statements related to the bid. That doesn’t count the comments from Ballmer or Courtois.
Interestingly, one of the public statements advocates the silent approach. On Feb. 22, Kevin Johnson said in a memo to employees, “We look forward to a constructive dialogue with Yahoo!’s Board, management, shareholders, and employees on the value of this combination and its strategic and financial merits… It’s important that Microsoft employees not speculate with Yahoo! employees about the proposal or about what a deal would mean for the combined company. Prior to close of the transaction, no Microsoft employee should reach out to Yahoo! employees for the purpose of integration planning unless specifically instructed to do so by the integration team and its LCA advisors.”
Now, by all means fellows, keep talking. But could you tell us what’s really going on?
Source: WSJ.com
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