It seems Mondays are slowly becoming the traditional days for Microsoft/Yahoo updates. Today, Microsoft saw the need to ‘set the record straight’ after Yahoo had released a statement on Saturday that, according to Microsoft, contained too many inaccuracies to be left uncorrected. Microsoft and Carl Icahn had offered Yahoo a guaranteed search revenue of $2.3 billion annually for five years, but Yahoo rejected this bid on Saturday.
In the announcement, Yahoo argues that its deal with Google has “superior financial value and less complexity.” Yahoo also believes that replacing the current board and top management at Yahoo would destabilize the company too much during the long period before the deal would get regulatory approval.
In its letter, on the other hand, Microsoft stresses that it submitted a new proposal specifically at the request of Yahoo’s chairman Roy Bostock that included the advertising deal outlined in Yahoo’s rejection letter. However, Microsoft says it did not request any changes to the Yahoo board.
In his own open letter (PDF) today, Carl Icahn, too, is trying to set the record straight. According to his statement, Yahoo purposely mischaracterized Microsoft’s offer by putting too much stress on a 24 hour deadline Microsoft had supposedly set, as well as by pushing the idea that Microsoft might still be interested in buying all of Yahoo, while it is only interested in Yahoo’s search business at this point.
Of course, Icahn also stresses that Microsoft is now willing to commit a lot more money than before Icahn got involved in the deal.
As we are getting closer to August 1, when Yahoo’s shareholders will get to decide on the fate of Yahoo, this constant mudslinging will surely continue and will, if anything, only get worse. We are already at a point where constant misinformation is being disseminated by all parties involved (to the detriment of the shareholders who will have the ultimate say in this deal). It is not even clear if the latest Microsoft proposal was a ‘joint proposal’ as Icahn calls it, or if the replacement of the Yahoo board was really part of the proposed deal.
Just a few weeks ago, it seemed the Microsoft-Yahoo saga had come to a quiet end. Now, however, we can look forward to at least another three weeks of battling open letters and announcements.
