Yahoo Share Price Microsoft CEO's Newest Cat Toy

With Yahoo’s stock trading at a 52-week low of $11.37, how could Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer fail to comment on the discrepancy between the company’s current share price and the spurned $33-a-share bid Microsoft made for Yahoo earlier this year?

Speaking at the Gartner ITXpo in Orlando, Fla., this morning, Ballmer said that a Microsoft (MSFT) acquisition of Yahoo (YHOO) or its search business would still “make sense economically” for shareholders at both companies. “We offered 33 bucks [for Yahoo] and it’s at $11 today,” Ballmer said. “It’s clear Yahoo didn’t want to sell. They probably still think it’s worth more than $33 a share. … Perhaps there will continue to remain opportunities to partner around search. We are not in any discussions with them. We’ll see. They want to remain independent. There are probably still opportunities around search. I think it would still make sense economically for their shareholders and ours.”

That remark spiked Yahoo’s shares as much as 17 percent, though there are no talks between the two companies at the moment and Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell recently described Yahoo as a “declining asset” and the chances of Microsoft acquiring it outright as “negligible.”

Said Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw, “Our position hasn’t changed. Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo; there are no discussions between the companies.”