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Microsoft Withdraws Its Bid for Yahoo

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Microsoft said Saturday that it was abandoning its blockbuster bid to acquire Yahoo after the two companies could not agree on a price.

The breakdown in the talks followed a meeting on Saturday morning in Seattle between Microsoft's chief executive, Steven A. Ballmer, and Yahoo's chief and co-founder, Jerry Yang, according to a person briefed on the discussions.

At the meeting, which also included Yahoo's other co-founder, David Filo, and Kevin Johnson of Microsoft, Mr. Ballmer increased Microsoft's offer to $33 a share, but Mr. Yang said Yahoo would not sell for less than $37 a share, this person said.

Microsoft's decision to walk away is the latest chapter in a three-month-old standoff that began when Microsoft made an unsolicited offer to acquire Yahoo in an effort to compete more effectively with Google in Web search, advertising and services.

Yahoo rejected Microsoft's offer repeatedly, saying it undervalued the company. Microsoft at times threatened to lower its offer, originally valued at $44.6 billion, or $31 a share.
Updates:
Full text of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's withdrawal letter to Yahoo here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24446149&GT1=43001
Read Full Story >>   
nytimes.com
Alternative Sources:
Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Bid - gamingshogun.com | By: JelalTrueshot
MorganX - contributor
Published: 599 days 7 hours ago | News | PC | Tech
 
 

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Breakfast - 599 days 8 hours ago
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Good now they can spend there money on acquiring Sony.

/End Seriousness
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Genesis5 - 599 days 8 hours ago
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1.1 -
Oh there you go again. You're not getting me this time.

Not really like MS to just go quietly into the night though is it?

@Elementx I have Yahoo Canada as my home page. But I use Google tool bar for my searches.
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ruibing - 599 days 7 hours ago
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1.2 -
I really can't tell if you are joking or not sometimes, so I'm just going to move on and suggest MS work harder on their next OS instead.

I mean I'm ok with Vista, it's easier to work with and does provide some useful features that make it more accessible. However, it just loses in every other respect with high price, compatibility issues, multi SKU markeeting approach, and stability problems. It honestly feels like the new Windows ME.
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wow4u - 598 days 17 hours ago
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1.3 -
Why would you use google toolbar for searches? Why not simply add Google as a search provider in IE?

My experience with Google Toolbar is instability and unnecessary bloat. I avoid almost all browser toolbars for this reason, they do so little that is useful and cause so many problems.
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streeks1984 - 598 days 11 hours ago
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1.4 -
GREAT NEWS I hope the ride into the sun set over a volcano....and HELL no they wont be able to afford sony.
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ElementX - 599 days 8 hours ago
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Who uses Yahoo anymore anyway? I switched to Google years ago and haven't looked back.
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ruibing - 599 days 7 hours ago
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Most people I know from Asia still use yahoo.
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crck - 599 days 6 hours ago
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2.2 - I use google for most searches
But my email, news, finance traffic always goes to yahoo. Bad news for yahoo shareholders though. Expect that stock to plummet on Monday.
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Denzelio - 599 days 2 hours ago
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2.3 -
I use altavista, I sort of visit yahoo every now and then to check out there 'Movie' section but thats it. Besides I never really have anything good to look up on altavista anyway.

If I really need some good information Wikipedia usually has what I'm looking for without the other rubbish that search engines always bring up.
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Richdad - 599 days 1 hour ago
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2.4 - For searches
google is best, but recent upgraded yahoo mail made it faster than Gmail. Ihave both so I am saying this. Also they are doing fine I was surprised by their move top capture yahoo which is of not good they recently strated acquring small firms (Danger, Speed tree, One motion capture firm) which they should continue.
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niall77 - 599 days 8 hours ago
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3 - now they have a few billion to burn....
...who else can they buy
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Breakfast - 599 days 8 hours ago
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Theyre probably gonna need ALL the extra money to help they're public relations...lol
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v1c1ous - 599 days 7 hours ago
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4 - come on microsoft
buy some japanese game companies!

do it! startup ones!

get MH3 out of the wii's grasp! you can do it!

oh god they are gonna waste that 40 billion on something retarded!
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Denzelio - 599 days 2 hours ago
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Assimilating game companies is EA's (The Borg) job, M$ is more of a parasite it infects things and riddles them with problems.
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wow4u - 598 days 8 hours ago
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@4.1

" (The Borg) job, M$ is more of a parasite it infects things and riddles them with problems. "

Why is this +4 Agree in the gamer-zone? This site is full of idiots.
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fezthabest - 599 days 5 hours ago
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personally I think they should use that money to spend on servers for LIVE, that would be sweet and/or better QC for their next Xbox. if they did that that would make me buy a 360 even more, still after the PS3 though.

JUMP IN & PLAY BEYOND
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wow4u - 599 days 2 hours ago
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5.1 -
There is nothing at all wrong with LIVE just the way it is. It is the leading service, far and away.

Take your mealy mouthed nonsense to the open-zone.
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fezthabest - 598 days 18 hours ago
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what??? Dude I'm not dissing the 360, all I'm saying is having servers would be awesome instead of P2P connections because of stupid lag, there are positives and negatives for both types of connections but overall I believe servers would be better. Next time learn to read more thoroughly.

JUMP IN & PLAY BEYOND
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wow4u - 598 days 8 hours ago
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@5.2

See, you presume "servers" means "no lag".

Are you telling me you're going to second-guess MS's Level 1/Level 2 networking for Live?

There is no noticable Lag on LIVE. Yet, you say "oh, they need servers" -- you have no idea what you are talking about, you're just looking to talk smack.
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codeazrael - 598 days 20 hours ago
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6 - I swear some people don't understand business and strategy
Microsoft is smart, very smart. If Yahoo's stock freefall and shareholder's confidence fade even more, they are just going to make a buyout cheaper for Microsoft. Microsoft is planning for this. This is not bad for Microsoft, this is bad for Yahoo, and Monday morning Mr. Yang may give himself a hari kari.
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sleepbox - 598 days 8 hours ago
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MS Should buy Take Two and kill off all support for any future GTAs for Sony brand consoles.
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