Yahoo and Virgin Mobile have agreed a deal making Yahoo search the exclusive pre-installed search service for Virgin’s 4 million mobile subscribers in Britain, the two companies said on Monday.
Yahoo is hoping to steal a lead on rival Google in the nascent mobile search and advertising markets, having lost the battle for dominance in the desktop computer search market, and is spearheading its European efforts in Britain.
The on again off again courtship between Yahoo and Microsoft has taken another turn. The Redmond software giant, is in talks to buy Yahoo Inc.’s search business for $20 billion. Microsoft does not plan to bid for all of the Internet-services giant, after it abandoned a $47.5 billion proposal last summer. Under a deal the companies are planning, Microsoft also would support new management for Yahoo, possibly led by Jonathan Miller, the former chairman and chief executive of AOL. Two weeks ago, Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s co-founder, stepped down as CEO.
Shares of Yahoo Inc tumbled 21 percent in pre-market trade on Monday after Microsoft Corp withdrew its $47.5 billion takeover offer for the Internet search and media company.
The decline also followed Citibank’s downgrade on Yahoo shares to “sell” from “buy”.
The stock tumbled to $22.65 on Monday morning. The shares rose nearly 7 percent to $28.67 on Friday on hopes of an agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo.
Yahoo shares fell 15 percent to $24.37 by market close today.
Source: Reuters
Microsoft said Saturday that it was abandoning its blockbuster bid to acquire Yahoo after the two companies could not agree on a price.
The breakdown followed a meeting in Seattle on Saturday morning between Microsoft C.E.O. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, and Yahoo C.E.O. Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s co-founder and chief executive.
REDMOND, Washington, May 04, 2008. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO).
