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February 11, 2008

Yahoo: Analyzing the Letter -- Move Along, No News Here

With Yahoo's letter to Microsoft now out, what do we know now that we didn't know from weekend rumors? Well, not that much. Matter of fact, the biggest difference is that the weekend buzz was that Yahoo felt the Microsoft bid "massively" undervalued Yahoo, while the just-released note uses somewhat more tempered language, saying "substantially" rather than "massively". No real surprise there, with the former sounding more like insider rhetoric, not the sort of thing you put in a financial press release.

Other than that, the only thing worth remarking on is now normal the letter reads. It is a classic "jack-the-price" response, the sort of thing you see every day in acquisitions. Yahoo makes clear it wants a higher price, lay out no favored price, no timetable, and generally says it is continues look at option to maximize shareholder value. Quel surprise.

Now, of course, the pings are on Microsoft's server, the ball is in Microsoft's court, the bat is in their belfry, the ... oh, whatever, you know what I mean. The gist is that it's up to Microsoft to take the next step. Given the way this has played out noisily and publicly, I'm assuming we'll shortly see a press release, a blog post, and maybe a bit of anti-Jerry sky-writing over Sunnyvale from the kids up in Redmond.

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