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Yahoo said Saturday it has rejected a
"ludicrous" deal with Microsoft orchestrated by corporate
raider Carl Icahn, who is bent on overthrowing the struggling
Internet search pioneer's board.
Yahoo said a "take it or
leave it" proposal made by Icahn and Microsoft on Friday called
for a massive restructuring of the California firm and the sale of
its online search business to the US software colossus.
"This odd and opportunistic
alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests
of Yahoo's stockholders in mind," Yahoo board chairman Roy
Bostock said in a release.
"While this type of erratic
and unpredictable behavior is consistent with what we have come to
expect from Microsoft, we will not be bludgeoned into a transaction
that is not in the best interests of our stockholders."
Bostock called any notion of
accepting the offer "ludicrous," saying it was crafted
without input from Yahoo and weighted mightily in Microsoft's favor.
Microsoft and Icahn gave the
Yahoo board less than 24 hours to decide on the offer, which was
non-negotiable, according to Bostock.
The deal called for Yahoo's board
to be immediately replaced by an Icahn-led slate and the removal of
top Yahoo executives, with co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang
presumably heading the list.
US billionaire Icahn, who has
amassed a stake in Yahoo and accuses the board of botching earlier
takeover talks with Microsoft, has been trying to convince
shareholders to back his slate at a vote during an August 1 annual
meeting.
"Microsoft and Mr. Icahn are
trying to dismantle the company and deliver our search business to
Microsoft on terms that would be disadvantageous to Yahoo
stockholders," Bostock said.
"We are prepared to let our
stockholders, not Microsoft and Carl Icahn, decide what is in their
best interests and we look forward to the upcoming vote."
Yahoo maintains that a search
alliance it made with Google in the wake of failed tie-up talks with
Microsoft is a smarter deal than the one brought to its doorstep by
Icahn.
Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo
for 44.6 billion dollars in stock and cash on January 31, but
withdrew its offer on May 3, saying Yahoo refused to budge despite
the software giant upping its offer to nearly 50 billion dollars.
Yahoo later tried to revive talks
with Microsoft, with Yahoo rejecting an offer to buy only its search
business and Microsoft saying it was no longer interested in buying
all of Yahoo.
Microsoft had wanted Yahoo to
better battle Google, which claims the lion's share of the
multi-billion-dollar Internet search and advertising market.
After ending talks with
Microsoft, Yahoo announced an alliance with rival Google to put the
Internet search king's expertise to work pumping money from its
floundering rival's online advertising.
Yahoo predicts the Google
alliance will boost its revenues by 250 to 450 million dollars in
its first year.
The plan is being reviewed by the
US regulators.
Bostock said that while spurning
the Icahn-Microsoft offer Yahoo made it clear it is open to selling
the entire company to Microsoft for at least 33 dollars per share,
the offer that began the failed courtship.
Yahoo's stock price finished the
Friday trading day on Wall Street at 23.57 dollars per share.
--AFP
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