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Microsoft withdraws proposal to acquire
Yahoo!
4 May, 2008
On Saturday, Microsoft Corp. withdrew its proposal to acquire
Yahoo! Inc.
"We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition
made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo! and the market as a whole.
Our goal in pursuing a combination with Yahoo! was to provide
greater choice and innovation in the marketplace and create
real value for our respective stockholders and employees,"
said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft.
"Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid
by roughly $5 billion (US), Yahoo! has not moved toward
accepting our offer. After careful consideration, we believe
the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us,
and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders,
employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,"
said Ballmer.
"We have a talented team in place and a compelling
plan to grow our business through innovative new services
and strategic transactions with other business partners.
While Yahoo! would have accelerated our strategy, I am confident
that we can continue to move forward toward our goals,"
Ballmer said.
"We are investing heavily in new tools and Web experiences,
we have dramatically improved our search performance and
advertiser satisfaction, and we will continue to build our
scale through organic growth and partnerships," said
Kevin Johnson, Microsoft president for platforms and services.
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