From Time.com - 17/04.08:
(WASHINGTON) — Microsoft Corp. has yet to convince Yahoo Inc. to agree to a friendly takeover, but the software company is already hiring lobbyists to help it convince regulators to let the deal — hostile if it has to be — go through.
Software company Microsoft Corp., bracing for a regulatory squabble in its takeover bid, recently hired Bryan Cave Strategies LLC to lobby the federal government on the proposed multibillion-dollar deal.
Pity poor Microsoft – they just can’t seem to get this deal closed. One minute reports seem to indicate that progress is being made in their bid to acquire Yahoo; the next, they’re back to square one. But whatever the true state of play, you have to admire the typical Redmond tenacity. If one method fails – try another. So what’s next then - a campaign march?
Agree to a friendly takeover, or else! Sounds like a threat to me. ;D
ReplyDeleteYep, good point, Andro! And thanks for your bunch of comments you posted on Law Actually - it was looking a little bereft this week!
ReplyDeleteThere is absolutely nothing Friendly about Microsoft; perhaps they'd better watch their step with respect to the Yahoo thing given all the trouble they've been in with the Competition Authorities....
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's exactly it, Minxy. Microsoft are almost synonymous with the term 'antitrust' in the US now given the continuous run-ins they've had with the Department of Justice since the mid 1990s.
ReplyDeleteEver since news broke of the proposed takeover, many said the ins-and-outs as to whether Yahoo would ever agree to it were academic because the DoJ would always kill the deal for antitrust reasons.