Microsoft Forgets Yahoo

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer says that the company has moved on from wooing Yahoo and will use the earmarked money for other things.

“You can do a whole lot of things with $50bn." That’s something we all know, and, according to Reuters, it’s what Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer told an audience in Moscow.

According to his speech, Microsoft has moved away from its thoughts of Yahoo and will look elsewhere. In fact, he said, “we will spend money on some acquisitions," he was quoted as saying. "Yahoo was never the strategy we were pursuing; it was a way to accelerate our online advertising business.”

It was earlier this month – on May 3rd, in fact – when Ballmer announced that Microsoft was abandoning its Yahoo strategy after a couple of attempts to take over its rival. But its left an unsettling wake as Yahoo as investors have launched an attempt to unseat the board and start talks with Yahoo. So Ballmer might actually be holding on to that $50 bn. for a while yet.