Microsoft On Yahoo Bid

Microsoft On Yahoo Bid

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) isn’t anywhere close to making an offer for Yahoo! Inc. and senior executives of the software maker aren’t involved in discussions, two people familiar with the matter said.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, does plan to review Yahoo’s financial information, due to be circulated as soon as this week, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Yahoo, which already has a Web-search partnership with Microsoft, said last month it’s reviewing strategic options.

Yahoo shares surged 10 percent today after Reuters reported that Microsoft may make an offer. Yahoo spurned a $47.5 billion bid from Microsoft in 2008 and is fielding inquiries from potential buyers after ousting Chief Executive Office Carol Bartz. Yahoo rose $1.46 to $15.92 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading, the biggest one-day gain since October 2008. The stock had dropped 13 percent this year.

Dana Lengkeek, a spokeswoman at Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo, and Peter Wootton, a spokesman for Microsoft, declined to comment.

Yahoo said in a September memo to employees that its advisers have fielded inquiries from “multiple parties” interested in unspecified options. Last week, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma said he’s “very interested” in buying Yahoo, which owns about 40 percent of his company.

The private-equity firm Silver Lake also has discussed a possible bid for Yahoo, part of a deal that may include Alibaba and Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies, people with direct knowledge of the matter have told Bloomberg.

The Silver Lake group contacted Yahoo and its advisers in recent weeks to inform them of a possible offer, said one person, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. The discussions are still at an early stage and it’s not certain that the group will agree to make a bid, the people said.

Editors: Tom Giles, Jillian Ward.

To contact the reporters on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net; Ronald Grover in Los Angeles at rgrover5@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net