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WEDNESDAY APRIL 30
Microsoft: How Now? Even more mysterious than the machinations of the Fed are those of that other monolithic entity, Microsoft, which is expected to undertake another Yahoo derring-do this week. A tutorial on which page it may next steal from the voluminous Trick-Your-Opponent-Into-Doing-A-Deal-To-Your-Distinct- Advantage-And-Not-Theirs playbook. (Hint: It’s not a hostile takeover or a walk-away – but rather something more subtle.) April 2008Microsoft Corp. is expected to make its next move in the three-month-old takeover standoff with Yahoo Inc. as early as Wednesday, as the two sides have failed to reach any negotiated acquisition deal. One option Microsoft has weighed is nominating a proxy slate of directors to replace Yahoo's board, while waiting to put any acquisition offer directly to Yahoo shareholders, say people familiar with the matter. Such a move could effectively delay Microsoft's fixing any firm new price on its offer for Yahoo for the time being, allowing Microsoft to step back from its $42 billion bid for the Internet company while keeping the option of later going directly to Yahoo shareholders with a hostile acquisition offer. It would represent a largely unanticipated middle path for Microsoft between walking away from its bid and pushing forward an aggressive hostile-takeover campaign. It isn't clear whether Microsoft will adopt such a maneuver as its final approach in the deal standoff, and any decisions by the company could change between now and when it goes public with its approach. But people close to the software titan say such an approach has been among those on the table. A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment.
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