Ballmer: Yahoo! Deal Still Makes Sense

Yahoo! stock soared to $12.99 (up over 10%, so despite the low price, that is soaring!) as Steve Ballmer, when questioned about possibly renewing negotiations with Yahoo! now that Yahoo! stock has dropped so low, said "it makes sense."

Ballmer was speaking on Thursday at Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo conference in Orlando, Florida. He said:

"We offered $33 bucks and it's $11 today. It's clear Yahoo! didn't want to sell. They probably still think it's worth more than $33 a share. I still think it makes sense for their shareholders and ours."

Well, it was in the $11s when Ballmer was speaking; it climbed as high as up 17% before closing up 10.6%.

But despite Ballmer's enthusiasm over a possible Yahoo! deal, Microsoft as a company wanted to make sure people didn't get excited. They issued a one-line press release later in the day:

“Our position hasn’t changed. Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo!; there are no discussions between the companies.”

Despite this, Yahoo! investors apparently didn't believe Microsoft; the stock continued to rise, up another 30 cents or 2.4% by late afternoon (Eastern).