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A senior Microsoft Corp. executive expressed optimism Thursday about
the software giant's takeover bid for Internet firm Yahoo, saying
the two companies' top managers were in close discussions.
"We continue to have a very close dialogue
with Yahoo's shareholders (and) Yahoo's management," Microsoft
senior vice president Jean-Philippe Courtois said.
"We simply hope for what we think is a very
nice merger in terms of economies of scale, research and
development, innovation, data centers...(and) to play a major role
in the world," he told AFP after a press conference here.
Yahoo spurned Microsoft's 44.6-billion-dollar
bid for the veteran Internet firm on February 11. Courtois declined
to comment on prospects of a hostile offer.
Microsoft is currently offering a combination
cash and stock deal initially valued at 31 dollars per share but
which fluctuates with the price of Microsoft shares.
Yahoo's board is said to believe the company is
worth at least 40 dollars per share.
Courtois, who heads Microsoft's international
division, also said his firm was taking steps to become more open
after EU regulators on Wednesday fined the software giant a record
899 million euros for defying a 2004 anti-trust ruling.
"This fine is about the past," he
said.
The European Commission fined Microsoft 497
million euros in March 2004 and ordered the company to open some key
software to rivals so they could make compatible products.
In July 2006, the commission fined the company a
further 280 million euros after determining that it was not
respecting its original ruling.
The latest penalty, the sum of daily fines
running from June 21, 2006 to October 21, 2007, was imposed because
Microsoft failed to charge rivals reasonable prices for access to
key information about its work-group or back-office servers in
contravention of the 2004 ruling.
Microsoft on Thursday announced that the head of
its Japanese subsidiary, Darren Huston, was stepping down. He will
be replaced on April 1 by the current chief operating officer,
Yasuyuki Higuchi.
Huston is expected to be appointed as vice
president of a new Microsoft division, Consumer & Online
International Group.
-- AFP
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