Perhaps the most surprising things about Microsoft Corp.'s bid for Internet media giant Yahoo! Inc. are the size, $44.6 billion, and the timing. It came on a Friday rather than the traditional Monday, when it seems every company announces a deal. The least surprising detail: the fact that Microsoft bid for Yahoo! as Wall Street and Silicon Valley had expected this for quite sometime.
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Take for example the early morning comment of Fred Wilson of A VC blog:
We all knew this was coming. Yahoo! was cheap. Too cheap. And a mess. Rats were leaving the sinking ship en masse. It was not sustainable. Something had to happen.
Indeed, Wilson's right. Last year, the media was alight with rumors about a tie-up between the two when the New York Post suggested on May 4, 2007, a deal. The Wall Street Journal later reported a deal had been discussed as far back as 2006.
Rumors of a deal between the two continued to flow as the company's executive ranks changed over the summer. First, Thomas Weisel Partner veteran Blake Jorgensen was hired as CFO. Jorgensen's hiring briefly quashed talk of Yahoo! being a target, and instead prompted talk of it becoming an acquirer. Then, Terry Semel was replaced by founder Jerry Yang in the CEO slot, and Susan Decker was promoted to president. When Yang took over, speculation about dealmaking again surfaced. However, Wall Street was unimpressed by the purchases that followed.
Even earlier this week, TheDeal.com's Tech Confidential suggested Yahoo!'s slumping shares made it an ideal hostile takeover target, and it seems Microsoft has delivered what the Street has been anticipating. - Matthew Wurtzel
See TheDeal.com: Microsoft, Yahoo!: potential partners
See TheDeal.com: New Yahoo! CFO could spur M&A
See TheDeal.com: Jerry and Susan Yahoo!'s answer?
See TheDeal.com: Yahoo!'s Yang steps up M&A game
See TheDeal.com: Wall Street yawns at Yahoo! buying
See TheDeal.com: Patience lost with Yahoo!
See Tech Confidential: Yahoo vulnerable to hostile takeover
See TheDeal.com: Microsoft bids $44.6B for Yahoo!
See Corporate Dealmaker: While Microsoft chases Yahoo!, its top M&A man is packing to leave
See Dealscape: Washington to weigh in on Microsoft-Yahoo!
