According to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch, today’s the day Yahoo’s board will make a decision on how to proceed with Microsoft’s takeover bid:

“There are only two options left. Accept the offer in principal, and try to increase the price with no negotiating leverage at all, or do a deal with Google to outsource search advertising and, likely, search itself.

The board, we’ve heard, is basically being told by outside advisors to take the Microsoft deal. But we’ve also heard that a contingent of senior executives at Yahoo, who are willing to do literally anything to thwart a Microsoft takeover, are pushing for the Google deal and will present their case at the meeting.”

One concern of Yahoos may be losing the company’s identity and being assimilated by Microsoft. In an effort to assuage those fears, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave empty reassurances in an interview with Business Week. “Yahoo, the brand, will live,” Ballmer said. He didn’t elaborate on that, of course, so it could be anything from Microsoft’s premier online brand to a token start page (think Netscape).

Yahoo’s Panama platform will not likely be as lucky, if Tarek Najm, adCenter’s general manager, has anything to say about it. He told Business Week there was nothing he liked about Panama that he would want in adCenter: “We’re the leaders in technology,” Najm says. “Ours is better.”

Source : Searchenginewatch.com

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