For the past three months both Microsoft and Yahoo had been in negotiations in which the outcome could have had huge ramifications for the internet community.
For those not following the news, Microsoft was attempting to buy Yahoo to integrate it into the Microsoft empire, and give Redmond Washington the leverage to become a powerful force online.
Unfortunately or thankfully, based on who you speak to at Yahoo, Microsoft pulled out its offer to purchase Yahoo after the price became too steep. This happened even after Microsoft had increased the offer by five billion dollars. Yahoo still wasn’t satisfied. Wisely, Microsoft decided to step out of the deal as explained by Steve Balmer.
"After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal."
Some people at Yahoo don’t see this as a bad turn of events, even though Yahoo’s stock will undoubtedly fall because of Microsoft’s withdrawal. Mr. Yang, Yahoo’s co-founder, saw the whole situation as a disruption.
"With the distraction of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history."
Ultimately, this really doesn’t hurt the portion of Microsoft we at GamerNode are most concerned with; the gaming division. While it is possible to speculate some form of casual online gaming platform could have surfaced or that the Xbox Live experience may have been expanded with Yahoo’s resources it is doubtful the Xbox 360 would have benefitted from Microsoft’s purchase of Yahoo.
[Via NYTimes ]
