Techmeme: MicroHoo: The Odd Couple Meetings Led Nowhere (Kara Swisher/BoomTown)

5:10 AM ET, May 4, 2008

Top Items:

Microsoft Withdraws Proposal to Acquire Yahoo! — Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc. — Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) today announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Yahoo!:

Yahoo! Issues Statement in Response to Microsoft — SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 03, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company issued the following statement today in response to Microsoft Corporation's announcement that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo!:

Discussion: TechCrunch, LiveSide, I4U News, StepForth SEO News Blog, VoIP Blog, Furrier.org, Paul Kedrosky's … and Geek Speaker

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Breaking: Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Bid; Walks Away From Deal (Updated) — Microsoft will announce shortly that they have withdrawn their offer to acquire Yahoo. Talks between the two companies and their advisors broke down earlier today, according to a source close to Microsoft …

Discussion: BBC NEWS, CNET News.com, Voices, Beyond Binary, Reuters, mathewingram.com/work, SarahLacy.com, LiveSide, Coop's Corner, Valleywag, Electronista, Business Technology, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, Thomas Hawk's Digital …, Search Engine Journal and WinExtra

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

MicroHoo: The Odd Couple Meetings Led Nowhere — After today's events, I guess you could say Yahoo and Microsoft tried, holding a series of meetings about a possible takeover that ended up proving exactly how incompatible the companies were. — Kind of like Oscar Madison and Felix Unger, but not funny in any way at all.

Discussion: Valleywag and Paul Kedrosky's …

Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:

Microsoft pulls its Yahoo offer — Update 5 p.m. PDT: Microsoft has made its move official. Click here for the story and here for the text of a letter Ballmer sent to Yang. — Microsoft is withdrawing its offer for Yahoo after talks between the two companies broke down on Saturday, a source told CNET News.com.

Discussion: Microsoft Watch, Forbes, Techlog, Business Week, Scobleizer, eWeek, CNET News.com, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, InformationWeek, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch Blog, paidContent.org, John Battelle's Searchblog, WebGuild, Smalltalk Tidbits …, MacRumors, Engadget and HipMojo.com

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Yahoo's Nightmare Scenario: I'm From Google and I'm Here to Help! — Here's what a top-notch source at Yahoo joked to me tonight, after Microsoft walked away from its unsolicited takeover bid to acquire the long-troubled Internet giant. — “Google is now officially our best friend.” — Oh no.

New York Times:

Microsoft Withdraws Its Bid for Yahoo — Microsoft said Saturday that it was abandoning its blockbuster bid to acquire Yahoo after it raised its offer by $5 billion but Yahoo rejected it as still too low. — The about-face followed a meeting on Saturday morning in Seattle between Microsoft's …

Discussion: CNET News.com, deal architect, Slashdot and Digg

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

BREAKING: MICROSOFT WALKS — After a months-long standoff, Microsoft (MSFT) has abandoned its bid for Yahoo (YHOO), people involved in the discussions said today. — Microsoft confirmed to BoomTown that talks between the two companies, which have been taking place all week, collapsed Saturday when they could not agree on a price.

Discussion: Digital Daily, Valleywag, Paul Kedrosky's … and Hollywood Newsroom

DealBook:

Guessing Yahoo's Opening Stock Price — Well, Yahoo seems to have gotten what it wanted. — The company managed to fend off Microsoft's unwanted advances, even after the software giant sweetened its bid by $5 billion — an amount Yahoo felt still wasn't enough.

Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed:

Analysis of the Microsoft Decision, Plus Yahoo's Hari-Kari — Here is my first-cut analysis of what has happened here: — On the friendly front, Yahoo drew a hard line at $37 per share, well above the $33 that Microsoft now says it told Yahoo this week it was willing to go

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Yahoo's Tough Week Ahead — At around 4:30 California time today news broke that Microsoft has formally withdrawn its offer to acquire Yahoo (see Ballmer's email to Microsoft employees here). — Among other things, that ends a three month stock party where the market value of Yahoo jumped …

Yi-Wyn Yen / Fortune:
Blame it on Google — Microsoft CEO Ballmer said the software …

Discussion: MacDailyNews and CNNMoney.com

Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News.com: Report: A peek behind the Yahoo-Microsoft meltdown

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Email From Steve Ballmer To All Microsoft Employees

Discussion: Beyond Binary, VentureBeat and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

Om Malik / GigaOM:
Microsoft To Yahoo: Take a Hike!

Discussion: Mark Evans and Changing Way

Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Microsoft Walking From Yahoo Deal, Will Not Pursue Hostile

Discussion: MediaShift, Tech Trader Daily and DealBook

Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Microsoft says proxy battle not worth it

Discussion: paidContent.org and BloggingStocks

John Paczkowski / Digital Daily: Ballmer to Yang: Dear Jerry, Drop Dead

BBC:
Microsoft walks away from Yahoo

Discussion: TECH.BLORGE.com

MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Yahoo breaks the wrist, Microsoft walks away

Discussion: CenterNetworks and Profy.Com

Drew Cullen / The Register:
Microsoft walks away from Yahoo!

Discussion: HipMojo.com

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