Yahoo CEO tries to convince shareholders Microsoft never wanted to merge
Perhaps you remember the morning of February 1, 2008, when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made public his intentions to purchase Yahoo at $31 per share. Or maybe you recall Ballmer's angry letter on April 5, demanding Yahoo answer to Microsoft's offer. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and the Yahoo board of directors would prefer you not. According to a shareholder presentation the group filed with the SEC — part of its campaign against Carl Icahn's alternative slate — Yahoo's board wants Yahoo shareholders to believe that "the record casts doubt on whether Microsoft was ever committed to a whole company acquisition."
It's a claim that could end Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang's time at the company. While in Yahoo's presentation there are other, truer claims — for example, that Carl Icahn typically wrecks havoc on most public companies under his influence — claiming Microsoft never really wanted to buy the company is outright lie. And its one so bold that it subverts Yang's efforts and screams the truth: that until it was too late to fix them, Yang and the board know all they did was blow Microsoft negotiations. Yahoo's presentation is embedded below.
