SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Internet icon Yahoo, under pressure from Microsoft to accept its $41 billion buyout offer, said Monday it doesn't oppose a deal with the huge software maker but wants a better deal.
The statement comes after Microsoft warned Saturday that if a deal isn't reached by April 26 the software maker will launch a hostile takeover at a less attractive price.
Jerry Yang, chief executive of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo Inc., and Chairman Roy Bostock sent a letter Monday to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
"We are open to all alternatives that maximize stockholder value,'' Yang and Bostock said in the letter. "To be clear, this includes a transaction with Microsoft if it represents a price that fully recognizes the value of Yahoo on a standalone basis and to Microsoft, is superior to our other alternatives, and provides certainty of value and certainty of closing.''
In the letter, Yang and Bostock assert that Microsoft has mischaracterized the companies' discussions, and say the company's threat to begin a hostile takeover is "counterproductive.''
