Yahoo! spent $79m to stave off Microsoft bid

Yahoo! paid its financial advisers millions of dollars last year to defend the internet company against Microsoft Corp's unsolicited buyout offer, according to a filing.

Yahoo! spent $79 million (Dh289.9m) on outside advisers hired to advise it on Microsoft's offer to buy all or part of the company, the pursuit of "other strategic alternatives, including the Google agreement", the proxy fight and litigation costs, said the company.

Goldman Sachs and Lehman Bros, whose investment banking arm is now part of Barclays Capital, were Yahoo!'s main financial advisers.

In the US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Yahoo! also said five separate stockholder lawsuits were filed against the company last year relating to the Microsoft proposal.

Microsoft made its $44.6 billion buyout offer for Yahoo! public last February and later sweetened it to $47.5bn before walking away in May.

Yahoo! sought an alternative search advertising partnership with arch rival Google Inc and also held talks with Time Warner Inc's AOL unit about a potential combination.

Google backed out of the deal later on under regulatory scrutiny, and talks with AOL have not progressed toward a deal after Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang said he would step down as chief executive. In January, Yahoo! hired Carol Bartz as its new CEO and the company is undergoing a major management reorganisation currently.

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