Yahoo on the retreat after Microsoft gets tough on bid

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Microsoft's $42.2 billion (£21.16 billion) takeover offer for the internet search engine group was pitched in February but Yahoo, led by founding chief executive Jerry Yang, has been attempting ever since to find a way to rebuff the deal.

The pressure was ratcheted up at the weekend, however, when the software giant's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, penned a letter to Yahoo's directors threatening to go hostile by 26 April, at which time it might even cut its offer of $31 a share.

Yahoo's board with apparently few options left, today put out its most conciliatory statement yet, saying: "We have continued to make clear we are not opposed to a transaction with Microsoft if it is in the best interests of our stockholders."

Ballmer's letter vented his frustration with Yahoo's directors, threatening them by saying: "If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the [appointment of] an alternative slate of directors."

Ballmer also told Yahoo's directors to stop obfuscating. "That action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal," he said.

The battle is transfixing corporate America, and Yahoo has been trying, but failing, to attract a white knight alternative takeover bidder in the shape of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, internet search giant Google or internet service provider AOL.