Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Microsoft Fails to Acquire Yahoo!

For a considerable time now, Microsoft has been waiting to conclude an acquisition of Yahoo and the deal seems to have collapsed early this week ostensibly because the latter did not accept the enhanced offer of US$ 33 per share. Considering that the initial offer was made while Yahoo shares traded in the US$ 19-20 range, it appears that Microsoft was prepared to pay a hefty premium to make the acquisition and ensure that it is able to compete with Google.

With the expected acquisition having failed, the combined wisdom from these separate pieces in the Slate Magazine and the Timesonline lead to two main conclusions. Firstly, knowing that acquisitions are fraught with danger of failure, Microsoft was extremely eager to make succeed in this acquisition by offering such a large premium. Secondly given that Yahoo! appears to be struggling in taking market share away from Google in respect to advertisements, its managers should have taken the perceptibly generous enhanced offer. My random conclusion is that either firm requires renewed thinking to determine the line of attack against Google as they are both devoid of ideas. Which implies that there's no guarantee that the acquisition would have worked well for either side. What is regarded as failure today may turn out to be lucky escape for Microsoft.

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