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    Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Not Buying Yahoo: "Sometimes, You're Lucky"

    Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that Microsoft dodged a bullet when it failed to acquire Yahoo in 2008.

    In February 2008, the technology giant famously made an unsolicited $44.6 billion acquisition offer for Yahoo. Cofounder Jerry Yang (then Yahoo's CEO) and the Yahoo board rebuffed the offer and did what it could to kill the deal. In May, Microsoft gave up.

    [More from Mashable: Yahoo Reports Dismal Earnings, Revenue Down 24%]

    Not long after, the market crumbled as major banks failed, and the market took Yahoo down with it. Carol Bartz failed to turn the company around and was recently fired. Yahoo is now worth $19.5 billion, less than half the amount Microsoft offered in 2008.

    At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Federated Media's John Battelle asked Ballmer a simple question: "Are you glad you didn't buy Yahoo for $44 billion?"

    [More from Mashable: WATCH: Dell, Foursquare and Microsoft’s CEOs Speak at Web 2.0 Summit [LIVE]]

    "You know, times change," Ballmer first said before talking about how the market collapse alone would have hurt the value of the Yahoo acquisition, especially since the deal would have likely closed after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

    "Sometimes, you're lucky," Ballmer admitted. Microsoft and Yahoo finalized a search partnership in 2009 that gave Ballmer control of Yahoo Search's market share without dishing out the $44 billion to acquire the company outright.

    This story originally published on Mashable here.

     

    1 comment

    • Suit of Flames  •  7 mths ago
      All the money in the world can't change Ballmer's looks; he resembles Frankenstein's monster
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