According to foreign media reports, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said on Thursday that Microsoft's plan to acquire Yahoo! has completely fallen through and the negotiations have ended.
Ballmer said: "The negotiations between both parties have terminated, we could not reach an agreement, it's all over." Ballmer also reiterated: "Acquiring Yahoo! was just a tactic for us, not a corporate strategy."
Ballmer stated that after saving over $40 billion needed to acquire Yahoo!, Microsoft will invest more funds in the search market. Ballmer believes that the search market is essentially a competition between two companies—Microsoft and Google.