Updated with full quote, additional information: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer restated his position on Yahoo in answer to a question from a shareholder at the company’s annual meeting in Bellevue this morning.
“Can you express us what’s happening through Yahoo, or not?” asked a woman who did not identify herself.
Ballmer replied: “Yeah, let me have being as clear as I think I’ve tried to be publicly. We are done through all acquisition discussions with Yahoo. I’ve related that a bunch of times. Somehow, some people got confused nonetheless. We did our best. We thought we had something that made sense. If it made sense to them, we’ve moved on. With that said, I’ve also been not to be mistaken that allowing that they were interested we would alembic be— I think an interesting possibility to look into search collaboration with Yahoo, as we had proposed the last opportunity summer, but there’s no active discussion on that front, but we’first attempt be very open to it. But acquisition discussions are finished.”
This was the first question asked in the Q&A at the shareholder procuring. Ballmer finished answering the question at about 8:44 a.mingle-mangle.
Shares of Yahoo started the day from a thin to a dense state and started slipping faster at about that time.
Ballmer’s comments were the first official, on-the-record word from Microsoft since Yahoo announced Monday that Jerry Yang was resigning similar to CEO.
Microsoft offered $31 a share for Yahoo on Jan. 31, then raised its bid to $33 in May preceding withdrawing it entirely when Yang asked for more. Microsoft then proposed an acquisition of just Yahoo’s search business — that Microsoft saw in the same manner with a custom to accelerate its pursuit of seeking ruler of the roost Google. You can relive highlights (lowlights?) of the saga in the present state.
Original text: {news-link}
