If shareholders were pissed that the useless tools at the helm at Yahoo cavalierly rejected $33 a share from Microsoft earlier this year, they're gonna wanna rip 'em a new one when they find out that Microsoft offered $40 to the Yahooligans in January '07 that was also summarily rejected.
Not only that, but weeks before Microsoft actually made their January 2008 bid, Jerry Yang ordered up a draft press release rejecting a deal. That news came out of unsealed court papers....
Lawyers for Yahoo investors said company officials ``gave the back of their hand'' to Microsoft's efforts to negotiate a buyout, according to papers unsealed today in Delaware Chancery Court. Some Yahoo shareholders seek to hold Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang and other directors liable for failing to accept the offer. Yahoo shares closed today at $26.40.
Microsoft, the world's largest software company, dropped a $33 a share bid for Yahoo, owner of the second-most-popular computer search engine, on May 3 because the two couldn't agree on a price. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer was willing to pay $40 a share last year to help the Redmond, Washington-based company compete with top search site Google Inc., according to the complaint.
``Whoever's suing the Yahoo management and board of directors, if they had a $40 offer and didn't take it and the stock is now $26, they're going to want to cut their throats for being that stupid,'' BP Capital LLC Chairman T. Boone Pickens, a Yahoo shareholder told Bloomberg television in an interview. ``Anybody who sued them has got a good lawsuit, I'd say. I'd hate to be on that board of directors right now.''
Microsoft Bid $40 for Yahoo, Now at $26, Papers Show - Bloomberg
Yahoo readied plan to reject Microsoft bid: papers - Reuters
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