6 ms·

Personally, if I was a Yahoo shareholder I would be calling up my lawyers to start suing the Yahoo board. Financially this deal is clearly good for shareholders

by JohnN 18y ago

Personally, if I was a Yahoo shareholder I would be calling up my lawyers to start suing the Yahoo board. Financially this deal is clearly good for shareholders coming at a 60% premium. I can't personally see why Yahoo would be worth $38 a share. The job of the board is to do what's in the best interest of shareholders but ultimately it personally seems this deal was not rejected because of the numbers but because of the sentimental attachment to Yahoo independence. Expect some litigation

edw519 18y ago
I don't think Microsoft shareholders should be feeling all that comfortable, either. This is a company with virtually unlimited resources (talent, cash, experience, partners) that wants to win every war, but can't seem to win even a single battle as the world passes by. Whats missing? Leadership. Time for vision to replace bullying. Stay tuned...
- goodkarma 18y ago
  In several markets - such as search, search marketing (i.e. pay per click advertising), web-based applications (i.e. Google Docs or whatever MS calls it), etc., Microsoft has really dropped the ball. The two things they lack are respect for their competition, and respect for new ideas. The ideas were there, but Microsoft didn't listen. Their competitors did. Probably the result of Microsoft getting huge and evil and not caring about their customers. They didn't notice that technology was passing them by. And then there was Google. When you get a lot of smart people working on something and give them a head start, it makes it very difficult for a competitor to catch up. :) I don't think Yahoo is much better. If the average Yahoo shareholder understood how bad "Panama" is given all the hype it got, they probably would have sued Yahoo by now.
bkbleikamp 18y ago
People would have said the same thing in 2003-2004 if someone offered $16 a share for AAPL...now they'd look stupid.
- signa11 18y ago
  if yahoo! has a steve-jobs in the closet somewhere, it's about time he showed up...
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - daniel-cussen 18y ago
    Cofounder Jerry Yang is back as CEO.
    - jmzachary 18y ago
      Good one, but don't quit your day job.
  - bkbleikamp 18y ago
    Who's to say someone at Yahoo doesn't have the capability of coming up with the "next big thing?" Maybe the junior developer they hired last week will have a great idea tomorrow - you never know. Steve Jobs came back in 1996 - it took 5 years for them to launch the iPod. It's anyone's guess where Yahoo will be in 5 years - maybe Jerry Yang will be looked at as a hero, maybe not. Predicting Yahoo's position five years from now is impossible.
    - phaedrus 18y ago
      Maybe the junior developer does have a great idea tomorrow - the question is, will anyone listen to him? Or will his small voice not be heard in a big company? It's not that they lack people who have the potential to do great things, it's the size/culture, the organization itself, which in (most) large corporations stifles new ideas and creativity.
    - anupamkapoor 18y ago
      radical changes will flow top down not bottom up. at least not in any organization of yahoo!'s size.
JayNeely 18y ago
Nothing personal, but that's the kind of shareholder that ruins good businesses. The language of Ballmer's letter is clearly intended to cause precisely that kind of action from Yahoo! shareholders. The shareholders sue the management, the management spends its time defending itself from lawsuits rather than leading innovation and increasing stockholder value, department projects go awry and more employees leave, and the stock drops. Microsoft makes the same kind of offer a few years later, but at an even lower price. The new management, seeing what happened to their predecessors, will take the offer, and Microsoft gets all of Yahoo!'s assets at a bargain price. It's absolute short-sightedness on the part of stockholders. Surely the mere fact that Microsoft was willing to buy the company at a 70% premium indicates that the stock was undervalued to begin with, and that people with the tech & business knowledge to see the big picture (not just the Microsoft execs, the Yahoo! execs too) knew the value of the company could be increased. Even if the management at Yahoo! can defend itself from these lawsuits, they'll have been put on the defensive, on every front. No major initiatives, no bold new plans, no big mergers or acquisitions that could actually help the company; if they rock the boat a second time so soon again, they won't avoid being tossed out. So while they stay the course set by the backseat drivers who don't even have a full view of the road, Microsoft is free to out-compete.
- cellis 18y ago
  Then perhaps we will see some more antitrust lawsuits?
- mwerty 18y ago
  >Surely the mere fact that Microsoft was willing to buy the company at a 70% premium indicates that the stock was undervalued to begin with That does not follow. MSFT might see more value in yahoo as a part of msft than yahoo run independently.
- JesseAldridge 18y ago
  Reading stuff like this makes me never ever want to run a publicly traded company.
- rms 18y ago
  Wow, I'm surprised no one has defended the Yahoo shareholders here. They have a lot of good reasons to sue.
cstejerean 18y ago
I'm tired of people complainig on behalf of the Yahoo shareholders, especially since I haven't seen anyone that actually owns Yahoo shares complain.
ks 18y ago
But it's a 60% premium on a very low price. It is only a good deal if the shareholders don't expect Yahoo to rise above $30. Only time will show, but I think they have the potential to climb above $30. Their deal with Google shows that they are slowly starting to see that they can't do everything.

by JohnN 18y ago

edw519 18y ago

I don't think Microsoft shareholders should be feeling all that comfortable, either. This is a company with virtually unlimited resources (talent, cash, experience, partners) that wants to win every war, but can't seem to win even a single battle as the world passes by. Whats missing? Leadership. Time for vision to replace bullying. Stay tuned...

goodkarma 18y ago
In several markets - such as search, search marketing (i.e. pay per click advertising), web-based applications (i.e. Google Docs or whatever MS calls it), etc., Microsoft has really dropped the ball. The two things they lack are respect for their competition, and respect for new ideas. The ideas were there, but Microsoft didn't listen. Their competitors did. Probably the result of Microsoft getting huge and evil and not caring about their customers. They didn't notice that technology was passing them by. And then there was Google. When you get a lot of smart people working on something and give them a head start, it makes it very difficult for a competitor to catch up. :) I don't think Yahoo is much better. If the average Yahoo shareholder understood how bad "Panama" is given all the hype it got, they probably would have sued Yahoo by now.

bkbleikamp 18y ago

People would have said the same thing in 2003-2004 if someone offered $16 a share for AAPL...now they'd look stupid.

signa11 18y ago
if yahoo! has a steve-jobs in the closet somewhere, it's about time he showed up...
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- daniel-cussen 18y ago
  Cofounder Jerry Yang is back as CEO.
  - jmzachary 18y ago
    Good one, but don't quit your day job.
- bkbleikamp 18y ago
  Who's to say someone at Yahoo doesn't have the capability of coming up with the "next big thing?" Maybe the junior developer they hired last week will have a great idea tomorrow - you never know. Steve Jobs came back in 1996 - it took 5 years for them to launch the iPod. It's anyone's guess where Yahoo will be in 5 years - maybe Jerry Yang will be looked at as a hero, maybe not. Predicting Yahoo's position five years from now is impossible.
  - phaedrus 18y ago
    Maybe the junior developer does have a great idea tomorrow - the question is, will anyone listen to him? Or will his small voice not be heard in a big company? It's not that they lack people who have the potential to do great things, it's the size/culture, the organization itself, which in (most) large corporations stifles new ideas and creativity.
  - anupamkapoor 18y ago
    radical changes will flow top down not bottom up. at least not in any organization of yahoo!'s size.

JayNeely 18y ago

Nothing personal, but that's the kind of shareholder that ruins good businesses. The language of Ballmer's letter is clearly intended to cause precisely that kind of action from Yahoo! shareholders. The shareholders sue the management, the management spends its time defending itself from lawsuits rather than leading innovation and increasing stockholder value, department projects go awry and more employees leave, and the stock drops. Microsoft makes the same kind of offer a few years later, but at an even lower price. The new management, seeing what happened to their predecessors, will take the offer, and Microsoft gets all of Yahoo!'s assets at a bargain price. It's absolute short-sightedness on the part of stockholders. Surely the mere fact that Microsoft was willing to buy the company at a 70% premium indicates that the stock was undervalued to begin with, and that people with the tech & business knowledge to see the big picture (not just the Microsoft execs, the Yahoo! execs too) knew the value of the company could be increased. Even if the management at Yahoo! can defend itself from these lawsuits, they'll have been put on the defensive, on every front. No major initiatives, no bold new plans, no big mergers or acquisitions that could actually help the company; if they rock the boat a second time so soon again, they won't avoid being tossed out. So while they stay the course set by the backseat drivers who don't even have a full view of the road, Microsoft is free to out-compete.

cellis 18y ago
Then perhaps we will see some more antitrust lawsuits?
mwerty 18y ago
>Surely the mere fact that Microsoft was willing to buy the company at a 70% premium indicates that the stock was undervalued to begin with That does not follow. MSFT might see more value in yahoo as a part of msft than yahoo run independently.
JesseAldridge 18y ago
Reading stuff like this makes me never ever want to run a publicly traded company.
rms 18y ago
Wow, I'm surprised no one has defended the Yahoo shareholders here. They have a lot of good reasons to sue.

cstejerean 18y ago

I'm tired of people complainig on behalf of the Yahoo shareholders, especially since I haven't seen anyone that actually owns Yahoo shares complain.

ks 18y ago

But it's a 60% premium on a very low price. It is only a good deal if the shareholders don't expect Yahoo to rise above $30. Only time will show, but I think they have the potential to climb above $30. Their deal with Google shows that they are slowly starting to see that they can't do everything.