Have you ever wondered how much it costs a company to fight off an acquisition? Well, in Yahoo‘s case, their efforts to prevent a takeover by Microsoft were extremely expensive – in more ways than one.
First, there is the actual price tag. According to the company’s filing with the SEC yesterday, the total bill came to a whopping $79 million. Wow.
Most of those funds were spent on outside advisers who helped weigh the pros and cons of Microsoft’s various bids. The offers ranged from a total buyout price of $33 per share to a later offer to only acquire Yahoo’s search business.
In the end, Yahoo refused all of the proposals.
The rest of the funds were spent on the following:
- Hiring outside advisers to battle a proxy contest by shareholder Carl Icahn, who later got three seats on the Yahoo board
- Outside advisers to evaluate the controversial search agreement with Google, which later fizzled under pressure from federal anti-trust regulators.
In the end, it was about more than just money. The prolonged battle cost Yahoo founder and CEO Jerry Yang his job, as he stepped down amid much shareholder ire and is now, once again, serving as chief Yahoo.
Carol Bartz now seems to be off to a good start in righting the Yahoo ship, but only time will tell.
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