Microsoft gives up on Yahoo

May 03, 2008 News of the rescinded offer is expected to crush Yahoo shares on Monday, given that there are no other known bidders for the company. Ballmer also made it clear that he would not attempt a hostile takeover because he fears Yahoo would take steps to make the company less desirable to Microsoft, as it has already done with a test partnership with Google, a primary Microsoft rival. In fact, Ballmer spent considerable effort laying out his particular concerns about the Yahoo-Google initiative, which he refers to as "the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo today."

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