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Microsoft-Yahoo picture still fuzzy
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More from BusinessSAN JOSE — In the wake of Microsoft's failed bid to buy all of Yahoo, one thing is clear: The two companies have what could be called a failure to communicate.
As the Microsoft-Yahoo takeover saga grinds into its sixth month, contacts between the companies are continuing. But the status of talks between them is an increasingly muddled mess complicated by the fact that Time Warner's AOL has quietly been put in play, according to sources familiar with the matter who have not been authorized to speak by their employers.
At the moment, Microsoft remains interested in "an alternative transaction" along the lines of a proposal that it made in mid-June to buy Yahoo's search business, a source close to Microsoft reiterated.
Just days after Yahoo rejected that proposal and announced a business arrangement with Google instead, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, still in pursuit, called Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock. They scheduled a meeting for this week, but Ballmer backed out.
Was it because he couldn't find partners willing to make a joint offer that would split the company between search and other businesses, as suggested in a story published in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday? Or was Ballmer waiting to see how much further Yahoo's stock would drop, after watching it slide 14 percent in the wake of the Google announcement?
Or was he busy looking into the possibility of buying AOL?
One thing is clear: "Everyone is talking to everyone," said two separate sources who are familiar with the saga. In fact, the Journal reported later Wednesday that Yahoo was also talking to Time Warner about some type of deal for AOL.
But so far all that's come of it is chitchat.
— Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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