NEW YORK (Reuters) - A major investor in Yahoo Inc has met with
Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to see if he would raise a
$42 billion unsolicited offer for the company, the New York Post
reported on Friday.
Capital Research and Management, which owns more than 11 percent of
Yahoo shares and more than 6 percent of Microsoft, wants to know how
much more the software maker might pay if Yahoo rejects the initial
offer, the Post said, citing a source familiar with the meeting.
Officials for Capital Research and Microsoft declined comment on the report.
Separately, the TechCrunch blog said Yahoo's board is due to meet on
Friday to discuss the bid. Citing unnamed sources, the report said
Yahoo advisors favor a deal, despite the interest of some executives to
seek an alternative tie-up with Web search leader Google Inc.
A Yahoo spokeswoman said the company's board was still "carefully
and thoroughly evaluating" the Microsoft offer but would not comment on
when its board plans to meet. Microsoft made its offer public on
February 1.
Analysts have said Microsoft could be persuaded to raise its cash
and stock bid, now worth about $29 per share based on Microsoft's share
price on Friday, to make it easier for Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry
Yang and his board to accept it.
Yahoo shares fell 9 cents to $28.95 on the Nasdaq. Microsoft shares rose 1.8 percent to $28.62.
(Reporting by Michele Gershberg in New York, Daisuke Wakabayashi in
Seattle and Muralikumar Anantharaman in Boston; editing by Phil
Berlowitz)
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