Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer says the software giant believes any Yahoo deal is over and the company will instead implement its plan B.By Ed Davies and Harry Suhartono
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Microsoft has no plans to make another approach for Yahoo Inc after
it pulled its $47.5 billion bid earlier this month, Microsoft's Chief
Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie said on Thursday.
"The market may wish that the Yahoo deal may come back together, but
Microsoft at least at this point assumes it's over," Mundie told
Reuters in an interview in the Indonesian capital.
"We know what we thought it's economic limits were and that didn't
come together, so we've moved on and we will go back and implement plan
B that we've been on in any case," he added, referring to the company's
online strategy.
Microsoft walked away from its bid to buy Yahoo last Saturday after
the Internet company turned down its offer to raise the price by $5
billion to $47.5 billion.
Microsoft's offer was for $33 a share but Yahoo would not lower its
demand below $37, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said. The
software company initially bid $31 per share for Yahoo more than three
months ago.
"Yahoo could always come back again and say please buy us for $33 (a
share) and I'm sure we might reconsider it but we're not assuming
that's going to happen," added Mundie, who took over as Microsoft's
lead visionary on technology from co-founder Bill Gates in 2006.
Mundie also said he felt the long-term position for the
Seattle-based firm on sustaining improvements in the battle against
piracy was intact, even if there were blips in the trend.
Microsoft said after releasing its March quarterly results in late
April that emerging markets saw an increase in the number of PCs sold
without licensed software -- often a sign that pirated software will
later be installed on the machines.
"I don't think anything's fundamentally changed. Each of these
countries has their ups and downs as a function of changes in
government, you know individual regulators, law enforcement priorities
etc," said Mundie, who was in Jakarta for a conference on government
leaders in Asia.
Mundie cited China as an example of a country where the piracy rate
was very high but the situation had improved after the top levels of
government brought in regulatory changes.
"I'm personally optimistic about that. I don't see a reason for alarm," he added.
(Editing by Jean Yoon)
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