Yahoo keen on 'avoiding' Microsoft takeover

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AFP

Posted online: Thursday , February 07, 2008 at 11:28:19
Updated: Thursday , February 07, 2008 at 11:46:03

San Francisco, February 7: Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang has sent a message to employees, assuring them the firm's leaders are exploring ways to avoid a takeover by software giant Microsoft.

In an email to Yahoo workers on Wednesday, Yang said the board of directors has yet to decide how to respond to Microsoft's offer to buy the veteran Internet company for USD 44.6 billion in cash and stock.

"Our board is thoughtfully evaluating a wide range of potential strategic alternatives in what is a complex and evolving landscape," Yang wrote in the email, which was filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

"What has become clear in the past few days is how much people care about this company. I have heard from many of you, and from other friends and colleagues from around Silicon Valley and across the globe, that we need to do what is best for Yahoo and our shareholders."

Microsoft's unsolicited offer to pay the equivalent of USD 31 per share for Yahoo highlights the 14-year-old California firm's potential to recapture past glory, Yang told employees.

Microsoft publicly announced what it billed as a "generous" offer for Yahoo on February one and said its plan is to combine resources to take on Internet powerhouse Google.

Google has come out against the proposed takeover, condemning it as an attack on the freedom of the Internet.

Yahoo has received calls from "a number of interested parties" and has a wide range of strategic options, a source close to Yahoo said.

Those options include outsourcing online advertising to arch-rival Google, a proven master at pumping revenues from that well.

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