Friday 18 April 2008

Microsoft tries change of tack

Microsoft Yahoo LobbyistFrom 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?

4 comments:

  1. Agree to a friendly takeover, or else! Sounds like a threat to me. ;D

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  2. Yep, good point, Andro! And thanks for your bunch of comments you posted on Law Actually - it was looking a little bereft this week!

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  3. There 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....

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  4. Yeah, 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.

    Ever 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.

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