Yahoo board member Icahn wants Microsoft deal
(SAN FRANCISCO) Activist investor Carl Icahn spoke out in favour of a search deal between Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp, as talks between the two companies appeared to regain momentum.
Mr Icahn declined to comment on the state of any negotiations between Yahoo and Microsoft. He had tried to broker a partnership between the two companies last year, when talks on Microsoft’s US$47.5 billion takeover bid for Yahoo fell apart.
‘I’ve been a strong advocate of getting a search deal done with Microsoft,’ Mr Icahn, who owns about 5 per cent of Yahoo and is a director on its board, told Reuters last Friday. ‘It would enhance value if a deal got done, because of the synergies involved,’ he added.
Microsoft and Yahoo are close to a long-discussed search and online advertising deal, which could be announced this week, according to another source familiar with the matter.
The news was first reported by the AllThingsDigital blog, which said a deal would involve Microsoft paying Yahoo several billion dollars upfront to take over its search advertising business and guarantee certain payments back to Yahoo.
The two companies have talked about cooperating for months, after Microsoft’s bid to buy Yahoo was rebuffed last year and Yahoo’s attempt to seal a search advertising deal with Google Inc fell apart under regulatory scrutiny.
Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz said in May that any deal to spin off or combine its search assets will require a partner with ‘boatloads of money’. She said at the time that Yahoo was talking ‘a little bit’ with Microsoft, but gave no details.
Mr Icahn, whose firm had a 5.4 per cent stake in Yahoo as of March 31, said he remains a ’strong supporter’ of Ms Bartz, who took the reins in January from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. — Reuters
Source : Business Times - 20 July 2009
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