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Feb 28 2008 10:44AM EST

Did Microsoft Just Talk About Being in Talks With Yahoo?

As noted before, Microsoft has engaged quite deliberately and effectively in spin efforts intended to box Yahoo into embracing a deal.

But the latest piece of real news on the battle seems to have been revealed by accident. Jean-Philippe Courtois, who heads the company's international operations, told an AFP reporter earlier this morning:

"We continue to have a very close dialogue with Yahoo's shareholders (and) Yahoo's management."

According to a Thomson follow-up, Courtois made the comments after a Tokyo press conference, which was apparently focused on announcing a new head of Microsoft's Japanese subsidiary.

Doh!

Last Tuesday, the NYT's DealBook reported that Microsoft would launch a proxy fight before the end of the week, unless Yahoo "quickly reverses course and enters into talks." Jack Flack assumed the anonymously sourced story was legit, and gave heavy odds over the weekend that the proxy fight was not launched because talks were underway.

Thus far, no English-language news service other than Thomson has followed, but all are surely now pressing Microsoft, Yahoo and other sources for confirmation that talks are indeed underway.

While Jack Flack has previously credited Microsoft for cleverly indirect spin tactics, he intuits that the Courtois comments were genuinely unplanned. While Gates and Ballmer are savvy veterans of what can go wrong when talking with reporters, the next tier of management is not. Second-level executives often think that if they're not still sitting behind a microphone up on the dais, then their comments are not fair game.

Update: SAI's Henry Blodget is on it:


An SAI source close to the situation says "there are no formal talks." This leaves room for informal talks, however, which would still represent a thawing of the ice.

Look for a follow-up avalanche soon.


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