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RPT-UPDATE 2-Yahoo board to meet next week on bid-report

Fri Feb 8, 2008 5:56pm EST

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(Adds report of Wednesday meeting)

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NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Yahoo's (YHOO.O) board members are formally discussing Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) $42 billion unsolicited offer for the company and have scheduled an in-person meeting for next week, the All Things Digital blog reported on Friday.

Board members will have discussed the bid by phone on Friday and are expected to meet next Wednesday at Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, the blog said, citing unnamed sources.

A Yahoo spokeswoman, commenting on an earlier report that the board was meeting on Friday, said the company was still "carefully and thoroughly evaluating" the Microsoft offer but would not say when its directors plan to meet. The company declined to comment on reports of a Wednesday meeting.

Microsoft made its offer public on Feb. 1.

Yahoo has sought an alternate tie-up with Web search leader Google Inc (GOOG.O) to maintain its independence. Should it pursue the Microsoft offer, it is expected to seek a higher price than the current cash and stock offer, now valued at about $29 per share.

Analysts have said Microsoft could be persuaded to raise its bid to make it easier for Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang and his board to accept it.

Separately, a major investor in Yahoo met with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to see if he would be willing to raise the offer, the New York Post reported.

Capital Research and Management, which owns more than 11 percent of Yahoo shares and more than 6 percent of Microsoft, wants to know how much more the software maker might pay if Yahoo rejects the initial offer, the Post said, citing a source familiar with the meeting.

Officials for Capital Research and Microsoft declined comment on the report.

Yahoo shares rose 16 cents to close at $29.20 on the Nasdaq. Microsoft shares rose 44 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $28.56. (Reporting by Michele Gershberg in New York, Daisuke Wakabayashi in Seattle and Muralikumar Anantharaman in Boston; editing by Phil Berlowitz, Gary Hill)

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