Yahoo Defends Rejection of Alternate Microsoft Offer

Yahoo yesterday launched an offensive against billionaire Carl Icahn’s attempt to displace the board, detailing in a letter to shareholders why accepting Microsoft’s alternative $8-billion search-only deal would have diminished Yahoo’s value and hurt the company strategically, reports MarketWatch. CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock said the proposal, in which Microsoft would have invested $8 billion in Yahoo, would have tied Yahoo to Microsoft for 10 years.

The proposal “would have made us dependent on Microsoft for all of our search business," the letter said, and  "would have given Microsoft veto rights on certain future Yahoo actions including the sale of Yahoo." They said Microsoft had misled shareholders about the value of the deal, which the software company claimed would have exceeded $33 a share. Yang and Bostock also said a new deal with Google will bring $250 million to $450 million into Yahoo. (More Yahoo stories.)