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May 07, 2008
Bill Gates: Microsoft Will Find Alternative to Yahoo!
By Michael Dinan, TMCnet Editor
Two days after Microsoft withdrew its unsolicited $47.5 billion bid for Yahoo, Chairman Bill Gates (News - Alert) said says that his company will walk away from the search engine and pursue other ventures.
“Now at this point Microsoft (News - Alert) is focused on its independent strategy,” Gates told reporters at a news conference in Tokyo.
Microsoft had withdrawn its unsolicited 3-month-old bid over the weekend after executives from the two companies couldn’t agree on a sales price. Yahoo’s board wanted $37 per share – a price that the company’s stock hasn’t reached in more than two years.
The figure was more than Microsoft was willing to pay, even though the company had upped its initial offer of $31 per share to $33. Half of the proposed deal would be financed with Microsoft’s own declining stock, which took a hit when negotiations broke down, falling to $29.40 per share.
Experts say the bid for Yahoo was Microsoft’s attempt to gain on Google (News - Alert) in the online search and advertising markets.
Gates indicated that Microsoft would look for other ways boost its own search offering, saying meetings were planned in Seattle to develop a plan.
We will make the advances that give people a great choice there,” Gates said.
The world is waiting to find out how Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, will accomplish that without Yahoo as a partner.
Gates, who was in Japan two years ago, said he sees Asia as an important market. Two days before arriving in Tokyo, Gates was in South Korea.
There, Gates said there will be a vast shift IT over the next decade.
“We’re approaching the second decade of (the) digital age,” the software mogul and philanthropist said at the start of a meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, according to a media pool report.
“The Internet has been operating now for 10 years,” Gates told him. “The second 10 years will be very different.”
While in South Korea, Gates also said he would consider alternative partnerships to Yahoo to help develop a Microsoft search tool.
Experts speculate that possible partners include MySpace, AOL, Facebook (News - Alert) and LinkedIn.
Michael Dinan is a TMCNet Editor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
(source: http://www.tmcnet.com/sites/sites/ipcommunications/topics/ip-communications/articles/27292-bill-gates-microsoft-will-find-alternative-yahoo.htm)
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