Yahoo's board has decided Microsoft's $31-per-share offer "massively undervalues" the company, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Yahoo is expected to formally reject Microsoft's offer, the Journal reported.

In the report, it appears Yahoo is floating the idea that it might consider an offer of at least $40 a share. I'm not in the boardroom, but all of this -- the leak, the wording -- sounds like more of a negotiating tactic than a final rejection.

But, if Yahoo does want to play hardball, it has bolstered its position. The report says that Yahoo has also adopted a so-called poison pill that means that the Internet company could force Microsoft into a proxy fight to replace the board before getting Yahoo shareholders to vote on its existing offer.

The Journal says that Yahoo will outline its position in a letter to Microsoft's board on Monday in the US.

Representatives from Yahoo and Microsoft declined to comment during the weekend.

CNET News.com's Elinor Mills contributed to this report.

Related links

Leave a comment

You must read and type the 6 chars within 0..9 and A..F

* indicates mandatory fields.

Log in


Sign up | Forgot your password?

Blogs

RSS feed

  • Staff Aussies to pay more for Win 7

    If you are looking to make some money in these troubled times, perhaps importing copies of Windows 7 could be for you. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

  • Staff Firefox: Greens want it, 3.5rc2 not up to par

    This week's roundup looks at the situation surrounding a campaign to change Outlook HTML renderer, a Greens MP wants to install Firefox but is restricted and all the photos from the iPhone 3GS launch. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

  • Chris Duckett Microsoft misses the Outlook point

    Ask designers which mail program is the bane of their existence, and you'll find that Outlook tops the list. The reason why the most popular email reader is also the most painful is simple: it uses Word to render HTML emails. Read more »

    -- posted by Chris Duckett

What's on?