Microsoft (MSFT) Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, notes Bloomberg – said on Thursday that an acquisition of Yahoo (YHOO) would still “make sense economically” for both companies shareholders. The comments prompted Yahoo shares to jump as much as 12% in midday trading Thursday.
Ballmer however, who made the comments during a keynote interview at a Gartner, Inc. (IT) conference in Orlando, Florida, said that “while the companies may pursue a search partnership in the future, there are no discussions now.”
The software giant bid nearly $48 billion for the Web Portal earlier this year to close the gap with Google (GOOG) in Internet advertising and enact a revenue-sharing partnership. After Yahoo rejected the offer and asked for a higher price, Microsoft walked away from the bid in May.
“Yahoo didn’t want to sell when we offered $33,” Ballmer said. “Perhaps there will be continuing opportunities to talk about a search partnership in the future”, he added.
Yahoo would probably still want the unsolicited $33 per share M’soft offered months ago. Recently, its beleaguered stock hit a new 52wk low of $11.75 falling more than 60% from peak in February. The co. continues to lose market share to Google, and its business prospects don’t seem to be improving anytime soon. The co.’s Oct. 21 earnings report is expected to be poor at best.
In September Microsoft saw Yahoo as a “declining asset.” MSFT shares are currently down 0.57 percent, or 10 cents, at $22.79.
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