When Yahoo sends its letter rejecting Microsoft’s $44.6 billion on Monday, it will end up in the inbox of a largely unknown executive on Microsoft’s sprawling campus, Christopher P. Liddell.

Mr. Liddell, a former banker from New Zealand, is the behind-the-scenes architect of Microsoft’s hostile takeover, the company’s first unsolicited bid and perhaps the most audacious attempt by a technology company to wrestle control of a competitor.

With Yahoo’s board rejecting Microsoft’s advances, it will fall to Mr. Liddell, an outsider to the software industry who joined Microsoft as its chief financial officer just two years ago, to plot the company’s next steps in this bitter battle — and in the process, reshape Microsoft’s not-invented-here culture toward making aggressive acquisitions.

Full Article

Yahoo!, Microsoft, Bid, Acquisition, Corporate News