Microsoft bids $45 billion for Yahoo
Microsoft Corp. made an unsolicited $44.6 billion cash and stock bid for Yahoo on Friday, a deal that could shake up the competitive and lucrative market for online advertising.The deal would pay Yahoo shareholders $31 a share, which represents a 62% premium from where Yahoo stock closed on Thursday.
Shares of Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) were up 47% with less than an hour of trading left, while shares of Dow component Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) had tumbled more than 6%.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, called the move the “next major milestone” for the software giant.
“We are very, very confident this is the right path for Microsoft and for Yahoo,” he said.
Microsoft hopes to close the deal by the end of the year. Ballmer said that Microsoft has been in “off and on” talks with Yahoo for 18 months and said he called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang Thursday night to tell him the bid was coming.
A Microsoft-Yahoo combination would create a powerful number two player in the online search business, which Google commands. It would also be one of the biggest tech deals ever, on par with Hewlett-Packard’s $25 billion acquisition of Compaq in 2002.
Microsoft announced the bid early Friday. In a statement, the company said the offer allows Yahoo shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the software giant’s offer consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock.
In a statement, Yahoo acknowledged receipt of the offer and said its board would evaluate the proposal “carefully and promptly.”
