Microsoft, Yahoo Enter New Talks: WSJ

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft Corp. is considering an agreement with Yahoo Inc. and opened up the possibility that it would consider buying the Internet company. In a statement, Microsoft that it is “is considering and has raised with Yahoo an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo,” the Journal reported on its Web site. The Redmond Wash. software maker didn’t provide details on the transaction being discussed. Microsoft on May 3 withdrew a bid for Yahoo that it made earlier in the year. Since Microsoft’s withdrawal, activist investor Carl Icahn has tried to push Yahoo into a deal with Microsoft by proposing an alternative slate of Yahoo directors and had bought 10 million shares and options to purchase 49 million more. The statement said that Microsoft is “not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo” but said that it “reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo! or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft or with other third parties, according to the WSJ report.  A Microsoft declined further comment. A Yahoo couldn’t immediately be reached.Microsoft’s statement concluded that “there of course can be no assurance that any transaction will result from these discussions." 

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