According to a report from AP today, Yahoo has found another delaying tactic to keep Microsoft at bay. By delaying their Annual Shareholders Meeting, Microsoft no longer has until March 14th to nominate a new board of directors for shareholder vote.
Yahoo continues to use this time to try and either find a white knight, someone they prefer to swing in, to buy them, or find another business merger partner in order to go it alone.
On the White Knight side, Yahoo is apparently still negotiating with NewsCorp's myspace for an online hookup. This would fill-in each others needs nicely as myspace and other sites are becoming a key way to share and search for information. NewsCorp has made it clear that online is a major on-going concern for the company.
On the merger side apparently Yahoo is talking with TimeWarners AOL. Speculation that a bought Yahoo would drive up the value of an AOL and allow TimeWarner to finally dump this anchor (my words...but maybe their's too) has been running rampant. Outside shareholders have begged TimeWarner to do something with AOL, as they have moved away from their subscription based model. This really seems like the worst of both world's to me. I would think they both need stronger partners not grab on to weaker ones.
Regardless, Round III is on, it will be interesting to see Microsoft's next move, as well as how this all shakes out. regardless of what happens, it is going to be well different a year from now!
