Microhoo-ha Revisited

This morning in Orlando, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told the crowd at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo that his company was still interested in buying Yahoo, despite the acrimony and heartache when the deal fell apart in the summer. “It’s clear that Yahoo didn’t want to sell,” Ballmer said, according to ZDNet. “They probably still think it’s worth more than $33 a share. I still think it makes sense for their shareholders and ours.” After Ballmer’s remarks made the wires later, Yahoo’s stock immediately jumped from $11.40 a share to $12.80.

Ballmer also had some choice words for Google Apps, the suite of web-based word-processing and spreadsheet applications that the search giant hopes will supplant Microsoft Office. Ballmer called the applications “very primitive,” and added, “You can’t even put a footnote in a document!"