Yahoo envía una carta a sus accionistas para explicarles el porqué del NO a Microsoft

Jerry Yang, co-fundador y actual CEO de Yahoo, ha enviado una carta a los accionistas de la compañía para explicarles el porqué han adoptado una postura negativa ante la tentativa de compra que hizo Microsoft. En la misiva argumenta que, a pesar de los pesares, siguen siendo el portal más visitado de Internet y que están posicionándose adecuadamente para sacar partido del mercado de la publicidad online, que según sus palabras crecerá desde los 45.000 millones de dólares que movió el año pasado hasta los 75.000 que se espera que genere en el 2010.

Yang afirma que tienen previsto aumentar el número de visitas a Yahoo.com a un ritmo del 15% anual y se muestra esperanzado con las posibilidades que ofrece la telefonía móvil para las empresas del sector. En definitiva, intenta convencer a sus accionistas para que no acepten la propuesta tan tentadora que ha realizado Microsoft y que está valorada, no lo olvidemos, en 44.600 millones de dólares, toda una fortuna para una compañía que, diga lo diga Yang, lleva de capa caída todo un lustro.

Si queréis echarle un vistazo a la carta, os copio y pego el texto íntegro:

Dear Stockholders,

On February 1, 2008, Microsoft made an unsolicited proposal to acquire your company. As much has been reported in the press recently, I wanted to reach out to you personally to let you know why your Board of Directors, after a careful review by Yahoo!’s management along with our financial and legal advisors, believes that Microsoft’s proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! and is not in the best interests of our stockholders.

Most importantly, I want you to know that your Board is continuously evaluating all of Yahoo!’s strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment, and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all our stockholders.

We have a unique combination of strengths

– Yahoo! is one of the most recognizable and admired brands in the world. We have over 500 million users (nearly 1 out of every 2 internet users worldwide). In the U.S., we are # 1 in many of the most used online services including personalized home pages, mail, news, music, shopping and travel. Because we have leadership positions in so many indispensable online services, users spend more time on Yahoo! sites than anywhere else online.

– Yahoo! is an attractive partner for marketers. Yahoo! is #1 in online display advertising, which represents 90% of the advertising inventory on the web, and we are also a leader in search marketing and a pioneer in the growing fields of mobile advertising and online video advertising. Through Yahoo!, advertisers can now connect with consumers on our owned sites as well as those of our growing network of partners including eBay, Comcast, AT&T, a consortium of over 600 newspapers, Forbes.com, Cars.com, WebMD and more.

– Yahoo! has the financial flexibility to execute our plans, thanks to our healthy cash balance, which exceeded $2 billion as of December 31, 2007, and our substantial operating cash flow, which we expect to grow double digits in 2009.

– Yahoo! has made important investments in our core computing infrastructure enabling us to dramatically increase the speed of our search engine updates even while handling vast and growing quantities of data.

– In addition, we have the added value of our substantial, unconsolidated investments in Japan and China. We have substantial positions in Yahoo! Japan, the leader in its market, and Alibaba, which is strongly positioned in China, a market with enormous growth potential.

ETIQUETAS: Internet