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D-Day: Still No Word From Microsoft

blog.wired.com — On April 5, Microsoft informed Yahoo's board that it would take its bid hostile if a deal was not sealed in three weeks' time. So here we are, three weeks later, and there's still no agreement. Microsoft hasn't gone hostile -- yet.

Who dugg this? Made popular Apr 27, 2008

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  • Ninjao, on 04/27/2008, -5/+76Mircosoft is still chargin up their lazers... thats why.
  • jc4me, on 04/27/2008, -4/+37Because they are trying to fight against google and the're loosing big time. They think by forming with another company like yahoo, they can make there company bigger to compete with google.
  • lilc09, on 04/27/2008, -4/+33pew pew.
  • AshamedAmerican, on 04/27/2008, -4/+31Could somebody please tell me why they are so hell bent to purchase yahoo?
  • sneedo, on 04/27/2008, -3/+26Losing.
  • inactive, on 04/27/2008, -6/+27"Microsoft hasn't gone hostile -- yet."
    Microsoft is hostile already, STOP being sensationalist.
  • ozid, on 04/27/2008, -7/+27Their.
  • stalefries, on 04/27/2008, -3/+21C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!
  • elvenseven, on 04/27/2008, -2/+20Google.
  • inactive, on 04/27/2008, -12/+30This is where we find out that Windows has secret code built into every version that makes every internet-connected Windows box perform a concentrated DDOS on Yahoo. This was their plan from the beginning!
  • DannySpace, on 04/27/2008, -1/+18"Mr. Gates, Tear down this wall!"
  • Snakedal337, on 04/27/2008, -2/+19Because corporations love blowing money on worthless *****? Figure 1: Ebay > Skype
  • inactive, on 04/27/2008, -7/+23Buried for inaccuracy.

    To go hostile, that would generally mean buying the stock publically. The NYSE runs M-F 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM EST and today's Saturday. This article really should have waited until the end of Monday.
  • Daggity, on 04/27/2008, -6/+20You can't start a sentence with Because.
  • truspect0r, on 04/27/2008, -5/+19Yahoo.
  • bacio, on 04/27/2008, -2/+15They're
  • mistergoomba, on 04/27/2008, -2/+14is microsoft trolling?!
  • grumpyrain, on 04/27/2008, -1/+12Yahoo!
  • AshamedAmerican, on 04/27/2008, -0/+11Ok, thank you.
  • AxsToro, on 04/27/2008, -2/+13World.
  • jman583, on 04/27/2008, -2/+12They are.
  • ebcreasoner, on 04/27/2008, -2/+12No. They just haven't put on the robe yet.
  • sfacets, on 04/27/2008, -17/+26Don't you know? Microsoft is never on time. This isn't because they are wizards, it is because they are disorganized morons.
  • Otnehs, on 04/27/2008, -0/+9EXCELLENT ITEM AAAAA+++++ WOULD BUY FROM AGAIN!
  • cyrix, on 04/27/2008, -0/+9REAGAN SMASH!!!
  • jerrolds, on 04/27/2008, -0/+8To take some of that sweet sweet Google profit
  • Atomic1fire, on 04/27/2008, -0/+8SET LAZERS TO STUN
  • Myztry, on 04/27/2008, -3/+11Once Microsoft start buying, hold you're stock. The first will go cheap from the holders without confidence, but just realize Microsoft need a 51%+ controlling share. The latter ones are going to cost them dearly, and provides heaps of profit for the wise holders!
  • teaBagger, on 04/27/2008, -1/+9Not really,
    They have released a tender for request of interest to supply "sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their frickin' heads"
    Just going through the proposal now....

    Should be delivered... soon!
  • PullingTeeth, on 04/27/2008, -0/+8I should just post my writings through Digg comments, I don't need spell check with such plentiful grammar nazis. I love this place.
  • Myztry, on 04/27/2008, -2/+10Because they're not a genuine player in a HUGE market. Even as the default for the majority of computers, they're still failing miserably. That's how badly they are doing.
    And if they can't rely on leverage. What do they have! Technical brilliance? LOL. They've got to base ultra massive computing tasks on the non-scalable Windows platform.
    They buy in, or they miss out on a maturing market that makes the desktop seems like peanuts. The web is platform independent. The consumer can just swap out Windows in this role. There's no real legacy lock-in available.
  • grumpyrain, on 04/27/2008, -0/+8A non-hostile bid is one where Microsoft approaches the board with an offer to buy, and the board put the offer to the shareholders, who vote to accept the offer. If the board rejects the offer to buy, Microsoft may issue a hostile bid, that is, may approach shareholders directly to purchase enough of a stake at yahoo to instate a board of their own choosing. It is hostile not as a good or bad thing, but as an approach to the purchase of a company that does not have the backing of the current board.
  • Gogogo111, on 04/27/2008, -4/+11Holy *****.
  • nixfu, on 04/27/2008, -0/+6Buy the stock on the open market...offer a price to all takers who will sell in hopes of getting a controlling interest (owning more shares than anyone else).

    The problem is that there are many techniques to SCREW OVER a hostile takeover...they Yahoo! could suddenly make ALL SORTS of wild poison-pill agreements which would make the company nearly useless to Microsoft if they took it over.

  • PullingTeeth, on 04/27/2008, -1/+7You can't end a sentence with a preposition.
  • Myztry, on 04/27/2008, -0/+6"Better the Devil you know" doesn't hold true in this case.
  • nixfu, on 04/27/2008, -3/+9Because they want to STUFF SILVERLIGHT DOWN EVERYONES THROAT AND TRY TO MAKE THEIR PROPRIETARY WINDOWS-ONLY alternative to FLASH very popular to try and reinforce their MONOPOLY on the Desktop OS market by rewriting the entire Yahoo Website to be based on this proprietary "no thanks we already have flash" monstrosity.


  • jc4me, on 04/27/2008, -7/+13It seems microsoft didn't have a plan to after this threat. Kind of like they don't have plan when one (or all) of there products go bad.....

    "Sir! Yahoo is not responding!" "Fire the cannons!" "Sir we forgot ammo......."
  • KibibyteBrain, on 04/27/2008, -3/+9I don't think Microsoft's lazers have a stun setting. You can say all you want about MSFT, but they don't play around: when they go they go for the throat. That has been the cause of their success and will probably be the cause of their undoing.
  • asuraci, on 04/27/2008, -2/+7In terms of my willingness to use them over Google (which seems to be their reasoning for the purchase):
    -2 (Microsoft) + -1 (Yahoo) = -3
  • bigmacur, on 04/27/2008, -1/+6so should we set to "throat"???
  • ByteGuerilla, on 04/27/2008, -0/+5A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.
  • TheZorch, on 04/27/2008, -3/+8An announcement will come Monday, don't be in such a hurry. Companies like Microsoft are lumbering beasts so it takes a while to get them moving, but When they do start moving nothing short of an act of God (or the EU Anti-Trust Board) will stop them. Unless something really big happens this merger will happen.
  • AndrewWiggin, on 04/27/2008, -2/+7Can someone please explain what it means to have a "hostile bid"? (It's an honest question and I double checked my grammar...)
  • MtheoryX, on 04/27/2008, -0/+5Because I wished to show you something new, I decided to comment in this style.

    Perfectly valid grammar.
  • ByteGuerilla, on 04/27/2008, -0/+4It also means buying stock from existing shareholders, which means sending them a letter with an offer etc, or announcing the offer.

    I agree that this story could be premature though. Microsoft could be talking to shareholders behind the scenes to gain a majority before they publicly offer to buy out the rest of the shares to clean up the smaller shareholders.
  • rompom7, on 04/27/2008, -4/+8Futurama fans are sparse today. Dugg you up for the comment anyway.
  • Xalorous, on 04/27/2008, -0/+4Buy preferred stock to take over company. VOTING stock. Most publicly traded stocks are profit sharing stocks only.
    Also, stock transactions occur every day outside the exchange. Only a small fraction of publicly traded stocks are traded on the floors of the exchanges. Most stocks sit dormant in mutual fund portfolios.
    VOTING stocks are held by boardmembers, venture capitalists, founding members of the company and such. When their shares are sold, they do not necessarily go through the exchange.
  • pw378, on 04/27/2008, -0/+4Mr. Ballmer then said: "***** Eric Schmidt is a ***** pussy. I'm going to ***** bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to ***** kill Google." .... "Google's not a real company. It's a house of cards."

    And that about sums it up. Ballmer is all ego, and he would rather destroy both Microsoft and Yahoo rather than see Google and Schmidt come out on top. When you are one of the richest guys in the world, the only other thing to work for is your own inflated ego.
  • rodrigo74, on 04/27/2008, -0/+3Can you imagine if the guy knew, like, 10 words? He would be richer than BillG!
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