Ballmer to Yahoo: That's Our Final Offer

CEO not impressed by Yahoo's Q1 profits
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 23, 2008 2:48 PM CDT
Ballmer to Yahoo: That's Our Final Offer
Pedestrians walk below a Yahoo billboard in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 22, 2008. Yahoo, Inc. is expected to release quarterly earnings after the closing bell Tuesday.    (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Microsoft won't raise its $44.6 billion takeover bid for Yahoo despite the Internet firm's strong first-quarter earnings, Bloomberg reports. "We are prepared to go forward without a merger," said CEO Steve Ballmer, who has threatened a proxy shareholder revolt to push the deal through, possibly at a lower price, if Yahoo didn’t agree to the original bid by Saturday.

Even with Yahoo posting its first quarterly profit increase in two years, Microsoft points to declines in vital areas such as search and display ads as justification for possibly lowering its $31-a-share bid—"Time is money, we've made that clear," Ballmer has said. But analysts think Microsoft’s hardball tactics might be hot air: "Microsoft is doing very poorly in Internet businesses; they have to have Yahoo,'' said one investment banker. (More Microsoft stories.)

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