“Well, if a picture can paint a thousand words then why can’t it paint you?” said Microsoft when it was trying to woo Yahoo, and spoke sweet nothings in its ears. Then this morning, Yahoo could respond by saying, “Look at this picture, and you can see why.”
Yahoo’s profits have soared – trebling to $542 million in the quarter just gone. If you want me, it can now say, well, you are going to have to up the price.
Yet, not so fast. The profits were lifted by a $401m gain from the sale of its stake in Alibaba.com, the Chinese dotcom star.
And once you take that into account, Microsoft’s offer looks like it could be on, after all.
The yang to Yahoo’s yin, is its chief executive Jerry Yang, who said, “Our board and management team continue to be open to any and all alternatives, including a Microsoft deal.”
Microsoft had previously given Yahoo until this Saturday to make up its mind – after that point, warned the Microsoft boss, Steve Ballmer, the offer may be decreased in value.
The latest results are good enough for Yahoo to feel it may be able to call Ballmer’s bluff, but not good enough to put the potential deal off altogether.
Talk is that Microsoft may be teaming up with News Corp in the purchase of Yahoo – so with My Space thrown into the pot, that will make a mighty Internet empire indeed.
Yahoo’s other option seems to sit with a takeover of AOL, in combination with some kind of advertising tie-in with Google.
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