They are waging a proxy battle against Yahoo now. For those of you (like me), who weren't quite familiar with a proxy battle, it's defined as:
Strategy used by an acquiring company in a hostile takeover attempt whereby the acquirer challenges the target company's management and solicits support from the target company's shareholders for proposals that would effectively give the acquiring company control of the target without having to pay a premium.Microsoft has previously contacted Shareholders in an attempt to sway them over to Microsoft's side. (Did I mention acting like a scorned lover yet?) to which the larger shareholders have requested that the Yahoo board consider the offer.
Yahoo wants Microsoft to up it's bid, but in this latest turn of events, Microsoft could get out cheaper waging the proxy battle and ousting the current Yahoo execs.
On the SEM side, Yahoo and Microsoft both need help with their UIs for the paid search arena. Would a merger mean even more screwy interfaces or would we actually get something that is fairly user-friendly and interactive?
With AOL and NewsCorp looking to jump on the Yahoo purchase bandwagon, only time will tell where the SEMs end up on this deal.
More to come, I'm sure.
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