Yahoo! shares! rise! above! offer! price!

Microsoft may pay more

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 8th February 2008 10:53 GMT

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!!!!! Yahoo! shares are worth more than Microsoft offered to pay for them last week. Even though when Microsoft made its offer to buy Yahoo! it included a 62 per cent premium Yahoo! shareholders are now better off selling their shares on the open market.

Microsoft offered a mix of its own shares and cash equivalent to $31 for each Yahoo! share. But since the deal was announced last Friday, Yahoo!'s share price has gone through the roof while Microsoft's has continued to slide. Yahoo! shares are just over $29 while Microsoft shares have fallen more than 14 per cent.

Although Yahoo! has claimed other companies are interested in bidding, none have emerged publicly so far. Yahoo! has talked up the chances of an alliance with Google to fend off Redmond's advances, but little solid has emerged during the week.

However, regulators have shown more enthusiasm for the deal - the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice in the US are both keen to examine the monopoly and anti-trust aspects of the takeover. On the other side of the Atlantic European regulators are just as enthusiastic.

In other news, Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer has said the Yahoo! brand would survive the takeover. ®

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