By rejecting Microsoft's 47.5 billion U.S. dollar offer, Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang will get a chance to prove his plan to right the Internet giant is working -- if disgruntled shareholders don't throw him to the wolves first.
Many analysts believe Yahoo's stock price, which had advance almost 50 percent since Microsoft's initial offer, will give up most, if not all, of that gain, leaving the Sunnyvale-based company's market value around 30 billion dollars.
But disillusioned shareholders are bound to question whether the rejection of Microsoft's 33 dollars-per-share offer was driven more by emotion and ego than sound business sense.
"Clearly there's frustration," said Darren Chervitz, co-manager of the Jacob Internet Fund, which owns Yahoo stock. "I am not even sure if Yahoo cares about its shareholders because they didn't show much regard for shareholders' best interests in this process."
Yahoo shares are unlikely to immediately fall back to their 19.18 dollar pre-bid price, partly because some investors may still be hoping the software maker will renew its takeover attempt if Yahoo continues to struggle.
Yahoo shares finished last week at 28.67 dollars, slightly below the 29.40 dollars per share Microsoft was offering before Chief Executive Steve Ballmer agreed to raise the offer to 33 dollars per share in a last-ditch effort to get a deal done.
Monday's anticipated shareholder backlash will put Yang on the hot seat as he tries to execute on a turnaround plan that he began drawing up nearly a year ago after he replaced Terry Semel as CEO amid shareholder angst about the company's financial malaise.
"This squarely puts the pressure on Jerry Yang to deliver results and shareholder value," Standard & Poor's equity analyst Scott Kessler said. "You are going to see a lot of shareholders just throwing in the towel because they are going to realize it's going to take awhile for the stock to get back to where it was Friday."
Source:Xinhua/Agencies
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