• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

Legg: latest Microsoft offer for Yahoo unappealing

BOSTON
Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:38pm EDT

Stocks

   

BOSTON (Reuters) - A portfolio manager at Legg Mason Capital Management said on Sunday he found the latest proposal for Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) from activist investor Carl Icahn and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) to be "unappealing."

Deals

Legg Mason (LM.N) is the second-largest institutional shareholder of Yahoo, with a 5.23 percent stake as of March 31, according to a regulatory filing.

"Our position is we prefer that Microsoft reenter negotiations to buy the entire company. $33 (per share) would be an attractive price," said Robert Hagstrom, whose Legg Mason Growth Trust counts Yahoo as its top holding as of end-March.

"We have made no decision on Icahn because we have no information about how he would run the company if Microsoft does not buy Yahoo. Furthermore, the latest developments to sell Yahoo search to Microsoft is unappealing."

Yahoo said on Saturday it had rejected a joint proposal from Icahn and Microsoft that would involve selling Yahoo's search business to the software maker, and handing control of the remainder of the company to Icahn.

(Reporting by Murali Anantharaman, writing by Tiffany Wu, editing by Martin Golan)
Deals


More from Reuters

Photo

Plot exposes fissure in U.S. intelligence community

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Last week's failed plot to bomb a U.S. passenger jet has exposed lingering fissures within the U.S. intelligence community, which had information from interviews and clandestine intercepts but did not put the pieces together, officials said.

» More Top News
Floor traders work at the Hong Kong Stocks Exchange, January 16, 2008. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

My way or the highway?

Hong Kong is poised to accept Beijing's accounting standards. That's good. The system, though, is prone to scandal. That's bad.  Full Article 

Global Markets
People walk past a branch of Bank of America in New York's financial district April 28, 2009. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Rolfe Winkler:

Move your money

Boycotting "too big to fail" banks is a great idea -- so long as investors remember that banks aren't the only ones responsible for the crisis.  Full Article 

    Commentary