Yahoo says open to takeover; blames Microsoft chief for aborting talks

06 May 2008

Yahoo Inc today blamed Microsoft chief executive Steven A Ballmer for its failed bid to acquire Yahoo Inc and said the internet search major remained open to a deal with Microsoft.

Yahoo Inc.'s chief executive Jerry Yang  blamed Ballmer and his aides for walking away from the bid even as the Microsoft CEO said Yang refused to accept less than $37 a share - a $5-billion bump in the purchase price of Yahoo!

"They chose to walk away after we put a price on the table, and they didn't want to negotiate," Yang said in an interview published in The New York Times.

Yang said he was willing to negotiate the $33 a share offer for Yahoo but Microsoft pulled out after talk turned to raising the price.

Microsoft, which had offered to buy Yahoo for $31 a share, valuing it around $44.6 billion in February, had last week raised it to $33 a share, valuing it around $50 billion.

Yang, however, feels Yahoo is worth more than that.