Mithras Capital Asks Microsoft to Detail Proposed Yahoo Deal

Investment firm Mithras Capital, which owns 1.7 million Yahoo (YHOO) shares, today sent an open letter to Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer proposing that the software giant outline the “alternative transaction” that the company has said would have lifted the value of Yahoo shares to more than $33 a share.

As you might recall, at the time that Microsoft and Yahoo stopped talking, Ballmer had been trying to cut a deal in which Microsoft would buy Yahoo’s search business. The letter indicates that the proposed transaction would have included Microsoft buying $8 billion of YHOO shares at $35 apiece, acquiring Yahoo’s search assets for $1 billion, and assuming the operations and R&D expenses for search while returning data back to Yahoo for use in its advertising operations.

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