• March 2, 2009

Yahoo paid its financial advisers $79 million last year to defend the Internet company against Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited buyout offer, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The financial consultants were outside advisers hired to advise the company on Microsoft's offer to buy all or part of Yahoo, the pursuit of "other strategic alternatives, including the Google agreement," the proxy fight and litigation costs, the company said.

Goldman Sachs and Lehman Bros., whose investment banking arm is now part of Barclays Capital Plc, were Yahoo's main financial advisers.

In the U.S. SEC filing, Yahoo also said five separate stockholder lawsuits were filed against the company last year relating to the Microsoft proposal.--Tanya Irwin