Microsoft to Yahoo: You Know the Number. Call Us After Your Lousy First Quarter

Yahoo (YHOO) has handled Microsoft’s (MSFT) hostile bid about as poorly as its own operations these past few years. And much as the company would like us all to believe it’s “positioned for accelerated financial growth,” no one’s really buying it, least of all Microsoft which has no plans to raise its bid for the company. Redmond plans to stick with its current $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo, at least until it agrees to buyout talks, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

With no competing bids to speak of and an economic decline that makes the original offer seem generous, Microsoft believes Yahoo will have little choice but to accept original terms. And so it’s biding its time. Said a source close to the company, “There’s no reason to bid against ourselves.”