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To: RockyBalboa who wrote (3327)	4/5/2008 1:45:23 PM
From: RockyBalboa	Respond to of 6370

Microsoft going hostile: Microsoft Sends Letter to Yahoo! Board of Directors Saturday April 5, 1:27 pm ET REDMOND, Wash., April 5, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) today sent the following letter to the Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO - News) Board of Directors: April 5, 2008 Board of Directors Yahoo! Inc. 701 First Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94089 Dear Members of the Board: It has now been more than two months since we made our proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium to its closing price on January 31, 2008, the day prior to our announcement. Our goal in making such a generous offer was to create the basis for a speedy and ultimately friendly transaction. Despite this, the pace of the last two months has been anything but speedy. While there has been some limited interaction between management of our two companies, there has been no meaningful negotiation to conclude an agreement. We understand that you have been meeting to consider and assess your alternatives, including alternative transactions with others in the industry, but we've seen no indication that you have authorized Yahoo! management to negotiate with Microsoft. This is despite the fact that our proposal is the only alternative put forward that offers your shareholders full and fair value for their shares, gives every shareholder a vote on the future of the company, and enhances choice for content creators, advertisers, and consumers. During these two months of inactivity, the Internet has continued to march on, while the public equity markets and overall economic conditions have weakened considerably, both in general and for other Internet-focused companies in particular. At the same time, public indicators suggest that Yahoo!'s search and page view shares have declined. Finally, you have adopted new plans at the company that have made any change of control more costly. By any fair measure, the large premium we offered in January is even more significant today. We believe that the majority of your shareholders share this assessment, even after reviewing your public disclosures relating to your future prospects. Given these developments, we believe now is the time for our respective companies to authorize teams to sit down and negotiate a definitive agreement on a combination of our companies that will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders, creating a more efficient and competitive company that will provide greater value and service to our customers. If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo! board. The substantial premium reflected in our initial proposal anticipated a friendly transaction with you. If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal. It is unfortunate that by choosing not to enter into substantive negotiations with us, you have failed to give due consideration to a transaction that has tremendous benefits for Yahoo!'s shareholders and employees. We think it is critically important not to let this window of opportunity pass. Sincerely yours, Steven A. Ballmer Chief Executive Officer Microsoft Corporation About Microsoft

To: RockyBalboa who wrote (3327)	5/4/2008 5:16:21 AM
From: RockyBalboa	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6370

.... hereby formally withdraw Microsoft’s proposal to acquire Yahoo! The (preliminary) end of the yahoo drama of buying: Microsoft abandons Yahoo bid, rebuffing higher sale price- AP Combine the crash in yahoo and an estimated 20% drop in berkshire hathaway and we are in for a rough monday. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Microsoft abandons Yahoo bid after sides can't agree on acceptable sales price SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. withdrew its $42.3 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc. on Saturday, scrapping an attempt to snap up the tarnished Internet icon in hopes of toppling online search and advertising leader Google Inc. The decision to walk away from the deal came after last-ditch efforts to negotiate a mutually acceptable sale price proved unsuccessful. The talks reached a breaking point after Jerry Yang and David Filo, the co-founders of Sunnyvale-based Yahoo, flew to Seattle in the morning to meet personally with Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Kevin Johnson, who runs the software maker's unprofitable online services division, according to someone familiar with the talks. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified. "Clearly a deal is not to be," Ballmer wrote to Yang in a letter sent late Saturday. .... <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Berkshire net income falls 64 percent because of derivatives Saturday May 3, 1:53 am ET By Josh Funk, AP Business Writer Unrealized derivative losses send Berkshire's 1Q profit 64 percent lower OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said Friday its first-quarter profit fell 64 percent because it recorded an unrealized $1.6 billion pretax loss on its derivative contracts, and its insurance businesses generated lower profits. Berkshire reported net income of $940 million, or $607 per share, in the quarter ended March 31. That's down significantly from the net income of $2.6 billion Berkshire generated a year ago. ... OMAHA, Neb. (MarketWatch) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett cautioned shareholders Saturday that returns in the years ahead from the company's equities portfolio, as well as gains from its own stock, will likely be lower than those seen in previous decades. Buffett said he would be very happy to generate gains of 10% a year from common stocks over the long term but questioned whether that will happen. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<