Bar a story earlier this week confirming the sale (everything from April Fools' Day is still alive and well on the web today...) things are suspiciously quiet on the Yahoo/Microsoft front.
Back in the mists of time, you may remember that Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo for what is now a $42.2bn deal. Yahoo said that wasn't enough, and that's pretty much how things have remained ever since.
The FT confirmed the stalemate: "According to some investors and analysts, the software company's determinedly non-confrontational tactics increasingly risk delaying the eventual completion of a deal and make it even harder in the long run to challenge Google."
Microsoft doesn't want to increase its offer, and there is speculation about how it might proceed - it could try and increase pressure on the Yahoo board to accept the offer, add something to its offer or sit tight. Doing the latter, says the FT, is an "usually friendly approach to an unsolicited deal".
Photo by net_efekt on Flickr. Some rights reserved.
• The WSJ also said Microsoft will not raise its offer, and instead wants to try and sweeten the situation to try and lure Yahoo into negotiations. "Microsoft's strategists believe that time is on their side, the people close to the company say. The strategists argue that Yahoo's recent roadshow failed to dazzle investors and nothing in its presentations will justify a higher price, the people say. In addition, the strategists argue that the worsening economic downturn and stock-market weakness make the original bid look even more generous."
• The excellent Kara Swisher on AllThingsD says that the offer rejected by former chief executive Terry Semel in early 2006 has been haunting the firm: "The tale has become a bit of an urban legend within the company for some, who point to it as part of the complex web of reasons the Internet portal cannot seem to accept a lesser price now... There is a continued and stubborn insistence on the part of Yahoo's top brass and board that the company is worth a lot more - and I don't believe it is simply a negotiating ploy to squeeze more dollars out of Microsoft.
• Yahoo's music general manager Ian Rogers is leaving for his own music start-up; paidContent said a memo sent out about a reshuffle at Yahoo's media group said there would be an "all-hands" meeting at the Santa Monica office on April 15 and then at Sunnyvale HQ on April 17.
• Valleywag says Yahoo is a mess on the inside, with a source saying: "The VPs are busy trying to show who has the biggest balls and nobody is running the show... Microsoft's offer is a blessing. Maybe they can provide some much needed management who knows how to run a business."
