Yahoo’s Pursuit Of Higher Microsoft Bid

Analysts say Yahoo’s first-quarter earnings results could be the Web portal’s last hope to remain an independent company or wrangle a higher bid from suitor Microsoft. Yahoo remains defiant. The company has twice rejected Microsoft’s bid to buy the company for $31 a share. The value of the deal, $44.6 billion when announced on Feb. 1, has slid to about $42 billion because of a drop in Microsoft’s share price. Revenue minus traffic acquisition costs — money it pays to Web site partners that carry its ads — should hit $1.32 billion, say analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Yahoo says it expects between $1.28 billion and $1.38 billion for the first quarter. money.cnn.com