Any day now, right? Microsoft, which continues to use
The Wall Street Journal as its mouthpiece for every move it makes (or doesn't make) in the ongoing Yahoo saga, late Thursday said it was
leaning towards going hostile, with a likely announcement coming sometime today. In an interview with the
WSJ Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer declined to discuss the company's decision or when it
would be made. "With the right circumstances it'll happen. Without the right circumstances it won't happen," he said.
The haggling is still over price. Earlier this week, Microsoft ceded
some ground, indicating that it would raise its $29.48-per-share bid to as much as $33-per-share, but Yahoo is understood to want $35 to $37. In a meeting with Microsoft employees, Ballmer said he
wouldn't pay "a dime above" what he thought Yahoo is worth. That said, Ballmer concedes that Microsoft wants a better position relative to Web advertising leader Google. "We like our strategy. We
don't like our position," Ballmer said.
Meanwhile,
Silicon Alley
Insider's Henry Blodget said that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is "playing this brilliantly-brilliantly" as, in two days, Microsoft has gone from $31 to $33 to today, "a non-categorical rejection of a
$35-$37 price range." However, Yang and company still run the risk of angering Ballmer to the point where he pulls the bid, in which case "Yahoo shareholders are going to storm the Sunnyvale campus
with torches and pitchforks."
Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »