AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Should MSFT Take Cue from News Corp. — WatchMojo.com

When Rupert Murdoch stunned Wall Street with a $5B offer for Dow Jones, he ensured that

- no one would get close to bidding for the venerable publisher of Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, and owner of Marketwatch.com

- and DJ’s board and shareholders would not be able to refuse the offer.

Should MSFT make a similar, open bid for Yahoo!? Today the MSFT/YHOO storyline is getting more and more ink as MSFT is openly calling to becoming a #2 in online ads.

Yahoo! is at $26, midway of its $22-33 range that its traded at for the past 12-18 months, that means $30-40B in market cap… so if MSFT openly made an offer for $50B through a mix of cash and stock, would Yahoo!’s board (who I believe has introduced a poison pill) really be able to say “thanks, but no thanks?”

After all, as a YHOO shareholder myself, I don’t see what YHOO plans to do to hit $50B in market value, frankly. I say that, even though I think YHOO is the best positioned online media company around.