Yahoo's Yang: 'Open minded' about Microsoft deal

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang said late Wednesday that he remains "very open minded" about a full or partial merger with former suitor Microsoft Corp.
"The best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo," Yang said during an appearance at a technology conference in San Francisco, "At the right price, whatever that price is."
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MSFT 22.08, -1.45, -6.2%) had offered as much as $33 a share for Yahoo (YHOO:
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YHOO 13.92, +0.57, +4.3%) , before pulling its bid in May.
Since then, Yahoo's share price has crumbled, and investors and analysts have been pressing for the company to reconsider some sort of deal with the software giant -- including selling its online search business, a prize that Microsoft covets.
Yang said Wednesday that such a transaction remains possible.
"As far as a search deal goes, we're very open minded about that," he said.
"They walked away from a public offer, and we were ready to negotiate," Yang said of Microsoft. "Had we been able to do that, we would have been very happy."

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