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San Francisco: An overwhelming majority of Wall Street analysts see Microsoft preparing shortly to launch a hostile bid for Yahoo at its current price of $31 per share in cash and stock, a Reuters poll found.
Most Wall Street analysts believe Microsoft now faces a drawn-out proxy campaign to win its unsolicited takeover of Yahoo, according to the poll.
By contrast, the view in February when Microsoft announced its offer was that Yahoo would agree to a friendly merger if Micro-soft only sweetened its bid. By mid-March a Reuters poll showed Wall Street expected Microsoft to buy Yahoo without a price rise.
Microsoft last week repeated chief executive Steve Ballmer's three-week-old threat that his company will go hostile, or even call off its bid, if Yahoo did not agree to a deal before this weekend. Microsoft executives said they will reveal their next move this week.
"I'm betting that Ballmer is bluffing with his 'walk away' comments and that he's going hostile," said Jefferies & Co analyst Youssef Squali, who believes Microsoft will stick with its current $31-per-share offer.
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