Yahoo! fight proved costly

Yahoo's fight to prevent Microsoft from taking over or purchasing its search engine business cost a total of $79 million (£55.4 million), reports suggest.

According to the search engine group's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the majority of this was spent on external advisors and Yahoo! eventually rejected all of Microsoft's proposals, including an offer of $33 per share.

Current shareholders now own stock that it valued at some $13 per share, almost half the Microsoft offer.

And last year also saw a proxy battle launched by major shareholder Carl Icahn against the management board, which resulted in him securing three seats on the board.

As a result of the battle, co-founder and chief executive officer of Yahoo! Jerry Yang was forced to step down, which may reveal that the failed takeover bid was more costly to the business than the $79 million bill.

Last week it was reported that Yahoo! Connected Life chief Marco Boerries and chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen had both resigned their positions.

This came ahead of chief executive officer Carol Bartz's announcement that she would be rolling out a new management structure.

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