Microsoft and Yahoo continue to circle each other like wrestlers, each waiting for the other to show its weakness before getting into a clinch. At a time like this, just about anything either side says is pure rhetoric.
That is the best interpretation of today’s report that Microsoft is ”evaluating” its bid in the light of deteriorating market conditions. This is a thinly-disguised version of the Larry Ellison treatment: soften up the target by cutting the value of a takeover offer (something Ellison did while Oracle stalked PeopleSoft) or at least threatening to (his treatment of BEA Systems.)
Like Reuters, I also talked to “people close to Microsoft” today, but I came away with the distinct feeling that not much has changed. No matter. With the arbs starting to sweat (most were probably thinking they’d have banked a nice profit on this deal by now) Yahoo’s stock has slipped 3 per cent.
Only two things are certain. One is that, whatever the rhetoric, Larry Ellison eventually ended up raising his offers to win PeopleSoft and BEA. The other is that the real negotiation between Microsoft and Yahoo will be conducted behind closed doors, not through these public posturings.

Back to Tech Blog homepage
David Gelles, Joseph Menn, Chris Nuttall and Richard Waters in the FT's San Francisco bureau upload their views - plus tech insights from writers in New York, London and Tokyo
Richard Waters
Chris Nuttall
David Gelles
Maija Palmer
Joseph Menn
Robin Kwong
Tim Bradshaw
The latest gadgets and gizmos, reviewed by Jonathan Margolis in How To Spend It.
Paul Taylor, the FT’s personal technology expert, answers your gadgetry questions