Submission + - Ballmer deflects rumoured Yahoo buy (itbusiness.ca)
Raver32 writes: "Try as he might, not even veteran U.S. television interviewer Charlie Rose could get Microsoft Corp.'s CEO Steve Ballmer to disclose whether the company continues to mull an acquisition of Yahoo Inc.
"If we were I wouldn't tell you, if I weren't I wouldn't tell you," Ballmer said earlier this week when asked point-blank by Rose in a joint interview with Cisco Systems Inc.'s CEO and Chairman John Chambers if Microsoft was currently in negotiations with Yahoo to merge. The two industry heavyweights appeared together in New York to discuss the collaboration between Microsoft and Cisco, which have begun to encroach on each other's territory in the areas of unified communications and network security infrastructure as well as products for the digital home.
There was widespread speculation that Microsoft and Yahoo were talking about a possible deal earlier this year, speculation that was quieted by Microsoft's announcement it would buy digital media and marketing services firm aQuantive in May in a US$6 billion deal to boost its online advertising strategy. The deal, Microsoft's biggest to date, closed last week, and the possibility of the company purchasing Yahoo seemed a moot point."