Microsoft Sets Deadline for Yahoo to Make Deal

Microsoft warned the board of Yahoo on Saturday that if a merger agreement was not completed in the next three weeks, Microsoft would make its offer directly to Yahoo shareholders, probably at a lower price.

"The warning was made by Microsoft’s chief executive, Steven A. Ballmer, in a letter sent by e-mail. It expressed dismay at Yahoo’s refusal to enter into formal negotiations over Microsoft’s Jan. 31 takeover bid and warned that without an agreement by the deadline, Microsoft would seek to oust Yahoo’s board.

“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 initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo board,” Mr. Ballmer wrote. “If we are forced to take an offer He founded Fantasy Sports Ventures Inc. in 2006. Before that, he spent 15 years in the media business as the vice president for marketing at NBC, the executive vice president for franchise programming/marketing at New Line Cinema and in senior executive positions at the National Football League, where he was the senior vice president for new media-publishing from 1999 to 2005.

While at the N.F.L., Mr. Russo, who earned a master’s degree from the Harvard Business School in 1990, helped start the league’s first fantasy football game.

directly to your shareholders, 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.”