back to article Ballmer stirs excitement with Yahoo! comments

Investors desperate for a scrap of good news have been buoyed by comments from Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer that a Yahoo! still makes sense. Shares in Yahoo! jumped to more than $13 from their recent low of $11.50, and Microsoft was up over one per cent to more than $22.00 after Ballmer uttered his fateful words. …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Andy Barber
    Go

    Microhoo! makes scene

    Given the domination of Google, merging a very capable email & data retrieval (Flickr) company with a company that makes software that retrieves email & data, makes a lot of sense.

  2. Chris Bulow

    Ballmer & Yahoo?

    So what? If MS had bought them then at that price, there'd by now be no Yahoo share price to track, so nobody would have been any the wiser!

    "Ballmer is probably quietly relieved he withdrew from the deal six months ago, given the way the market has turned. Yahoo! rejected his offer of $33 a share, saying it was not enough. Since then, Yahoo!'s shares have lost more than half their value: Yahoo! was trading around $27 in May. An agreement would have left Microsoft out of pocket and raised questions about Ballmer's judgment."

  3. zenkaon
    Pirate

    The! deal! that! won't! die!

    ........Here we go again!!........!........

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    MS should wait

    Yahoo's management has driven the company into the ground, and there is no reason to believe that will change. Yahoo stock has tanked even faster than anyone anticipated. MS should wait, as Yahoo if it stays on its present course, will go tits up next year.

  5. Lars Silver badge
    Happy

    no easy way out

    Poor Ballmer there is no easy way to make money.

    Microsoft will be better off without you and Bill

    Money or buing something will not save you if you have nothing to deliver.

  6. TJ
    Thumb Down

    Gartner IT Synoposium

    WHY can't an IT expo actually involve IT anymore? Why do we care what M$ wants to do with Yahoo @ an IT Expo? Its an IT expo, I wanna know whats going on with IT, not share prices. Seems to be a common trend to make IT Expos a grandstanding business platform for one company and the next to blurt share prices everywhere and start school yard tussles. I know IT Expos are marketing tools all the same, but I hate this share price crap all the time. I don't care on how well your company is doing, how are you going to make MY IT job easier?

  7. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Ballmer relieved ? Oh I get it !

    So that's why we are in this financial crisis : because Ballmer wanted to tank Yahoo!'s price and that's how he did it. Kind of like throwing chairs in the office, but on a global market scale.

    Now Yahoo!'s price has tanked and it is easy pickings for Monkey Boy, who can snap it up for a song and a skip.

    Oohh, I feel the conspiracy threads building up already.

  8. James Pickett

    IQ

    "questions about Ballmer's judgment."

    So that fact that he offered $33 a share doesn't count, because Yahoo turned it down..?!

    I think someone's confusing competence with publicity. Or shares with chairs, perhaps...

  9. goggyturk
    Gates Horns

    Tug the puppet strings

    Ballmer wasn't away to sell some shares by any chance?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @how are you going to make MY IT job easier?

    umm, this is El 'Reg you know the site with the tag line 'Biting the Hand that Feeds IT'.

    It is not Dr Dobb's journal, or the Gentoo wiki, no, it is meant to be a sardonic look on the world of IT.

    Recently it has had far too many group hug stories, very out of character; how to use your new Linux Netbook, save a shed, and talk like a pirate day, where's the hand biting there :)

    I blame the merkins. But, then I always do. Primarily, because I just love their standard, you're just jealous response, it never fails to warm the cockles.

  11. Oninoshiko
    Happy

    @AC

    well thats because your just jealous.

    (happy to have made your day! ^_^)

  12. JC

    @ MS Should Wait

    It seems you've missed the point, which was not to get Yahoo out of the market but rather, leverage their brand name to pile more sheep onto the MS search engine and advertising campaign. Yahoo going under before MS can get any market share out of it = utter fail. Remember MS is already paying people to use their Live Search via cashback rewards, meaning they are quite desperate to reign in Google and with good reason.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like