Microsoft CEO "done" with Yahoo
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer on Thursday defended Microsoft's (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) need to make heavy investments in its Internet businesses but said the company was "done," for now, with pursuing Yahoo (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research).
"There's nothing under discussion between the two of us," Ballmer told investors of how six months of various talks had reached an impasse earlier in July. "We had a set of principles, we talked about them, it didn't work out," he said. "Fine, we're done. We can move on."
The message for Microsoft's annual meeting with Wall Street analysts, an all-day affair at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, was that it had a post-Yahoo plan to turn around its online services division and a strategy to take advantage of future opportunities, even as its Internet chief departs.
