The following are excerpts of a transcript from a meeting Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer held with Microsoft employees May 1. The company disclosed the comments in an SEC filing. The filing only includes excerpts related to Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo Inc.
STEVE BALLMER: Yeah, anybody live got a question, fine, I’m going to take the first question that was presubmitted. Forty percent of our questions basically are these two.
We’ve been reading a lot about the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal in the newspaper, and recently read a few articles about Yahoo! partnering with Google to avoid being overtaken by Microsoft. As an employee, we would like to understand what’s there in Yahoo! that is attracting Microsoft to buy it.
Two, related, what are our plans to quickly get onto number two position if the Yahoo! bid doesn’t work?
I’ll consider that open season to kind of talk about what we’re trying to get done with Yahoo! — not open season on Yahoo!, open season on what we’re trying to get done — (laughter) — with Yahoo!
There’s a few things people have to have in their minds, because it’s really important, and then I’ll give you a context as to the tactics and what’s going on in the newspaper.
We are absolutely 100 percent determined to build the most interesting position in the world in online advertising, media, and the kind of social connected search and media experiences that go along with that.
The future of the way people consume information, the way people socialize and connect is going to change a lot more in the next 10 years even than in the last 10. How you find information, how you consume it, how you share it and connect with your friends while you’re in the middle of that, how it gets paid for using advertising and other techniques, dramatic changes. We are absolutely committed to be the leading player in that endeavor. … continue reading this entry.
