Microsoft still interested in Yahoo search: CEO
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said Friday the US software giant remained interested in acquiring Yahoo's search business and would rather do a deal "sooner than later."
"I think a search deal makes great sense for Microsoft, and Yahoo," Ballmer said in an interview published in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal. "I think I've been very open about that."
"I think good ideas are usually better done quickly than slowly, so it would probably be better for both us, and certainly for Yahoo, if we were to do it sooner than later," he said.
"But at the end of the day, that would have be something Yahoo would be as interested in as I have expressed our interest."
Asked by the newspaper whether the Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft and Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo were in talks, Ballmer replied: "The answer is no, but I wouldn't tell you if there were."
Ballmer, who hired former Yahoo executive Qi Lu this week to be Microsoft's online services chief, said if Microsoft and Yahoo tied up on search, market leader Google "would have perhaps a real credible competitor sooner.”
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