Adotas

Where media buyers start online

Featured Author

Kathleen comes to ADOTAS with almost a decade of writing experience at consumer and business publications. Most recently, she was an editor at First Magazine. Before that, she was an editor at The New York Sun and Thomson Financial’s Investment Management Weekly.

More articles by Kathleen





Features

Vengence is Mine Saith Ballmer

Written on
Nov 7, 2008 
Author
Kathleen  |
Share
Vengence is Mine Saith Ballmer

yahoo_dark_small.jpgADOTAS – Microsoft’s chief Steve Ballmer does not share Yahoo chief Jerry Yang’s enthusiasm for renewed takeover talks.

“We tried at one point to do a partnership around search … and that didn’t work either, and we moved on and they moved on. We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don’t know why they would be either, frankly,” Ballmer reportedly said at a business lunch in Sydney today when asked about Microsoft’s plans.

However, he didn’t completely shut the door on a search partnership, intimating that some sort of deal is possible.

Microsoft ditched takeover talks in May when Yahoo rejected its $33 per share offer as too low. (Meanwhile, the stock was trading at $11.90 as of 11:50 a.m. today).

The following month, Google and Yahoo announced plans for a search advertising partnership, and it seemed like Yang may have outsmarted Ballmer. Not so much anymore.

Industry sources say that a still red-faced Ballmer is punishing Yang for not jumping on the deal from the get-go (hindsight being 20/20, that obviously would have been the way to go). Insiders speculate that Ballmer is waiting until Yang gets fired to swoop in and reignite talks with Yahoo again. That way, he gets all the credit.





Reader Comments.

I personally relish this drama. I don’t think Yang had hubris but he miscalculated and I think was to greedy. Maybe greedy is too strong of a word to use as well, but regardless, his decision was poor. I personally thought that it would only have been a victory in retrospect if things worked out with Yahoo and Google. But I wasn’t sold that partnership would have worked either. As Iceman said in Top Gun, “there are no points for second place”

Posted by AK Works | 3:31 pm on November 7, 2008.

Yang is an idiot, he deserves to be fired and honestly, his Yahoo stocks should be spread amongst the other holders who lost big on his stupidity. He must feel like a total imbecile.

Posted by PJ | 4:55 pm on November 7, 2008.

It’s easy to blame hindsight, but in reality Jerry made an epic error in not cementing a reasonable MSFT offer at the time it was on the table. Why? Can’t blame him for not knowing that the market would tank. But, any critical viewer of Yahoo knew that they didn’t have any new bullets in their gun that would turn the company around. For several earnings conference calls in a row I kept listening to hear about a new products, acquisitions, meaningful strategies, etc. All I heard was nibbling at the edges; pure incrementalism. Not good enough. So bottom line, all Yahoo had was the belief that they could do better but none of the goods to actually accomplish it. It takes clarity of vision for the CEO to see that and frankly, Jerry’s long association with the firm (and the fact that he was ‘part of the problem’) precluded him from seeing reality in its cold, harsh light.
I don’t know about hubris or greed; only know that “drinking the corporate koolaid” is unacceptable at these stakes and from this outsider’s view that’s the way it appears to have gone down.

Posted by Joe | 4:04 pm on November 11, 2008.

I listed to the Yahoo earnings conference calls for the past 3 quarters. It was evident that they didn’t have any new bullets in their gun: no significant products, acquisitions, strategies. All they had was hope that things would go better. That’s what they call “drinking the corporate koolaid”. As CEO, Jerry needs to see the world thru a harsher light of reality. Had he done that, would have been very evident that it was imperative to strike a deal with MSFT at any reasonable price. I believe that their second offer was just that.

Can’t say if that’s hubris or greed; just observe that sometimes it’s easier for outsiders who are not saddled with too much information to see the essential truth of a situation that eludes insiders.

Posted by Raoul | 5:52 pm on November 11, 2008.

Well, Yang got yanked. Always a bad decision to turn down a date with one of the most beautiful women in the world when you think THE most beautiful woman is going to ask you out.

You can never go back when it doesn’t happen.

Posted by Brian Olson | 3:31 pm on November 18, 2008.

Yahoo was once worth $150 Billion. Microsoft almost bought it out for about $45 Billion. Now its worth about $15 Billion. if you have Yahoo stock, sell sell sell!

Posted by PJ | 4:24 pm on November 24, 2008.

Leave a Comment

Add a comment

No Tags
Article Sponsor

More Features


  • Right now, at the beginning of 2012, what are you watching the most closely for its ad and marketing opportunities?

    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...

Latest News

News Archive

Spotlight

Sponsormob Leads the Way Into RTB for MobileADOTAS – For more than half a decade, Berlin-based tech firm Sponsormob has remained relevant in an industry characterized by [...] more...


Adotas Partnership