U.S. stocks open down after Microsoft drops its bid for Yahoo, sending
Yahoo shares plunging.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MAY 05, 2008) NYSE -

  Yahoo's shares tumbled as much as 20 percent on Monday (May 05)
after Microsoft Corp  withdrew its $47.5 billion takeover offer, wiping about
$7.6 billion off the Internet company's market capitalization and piling
pressure on its leadership.
    In the aftermath, Internet search leader Google seemed poised to reap
the gains of the missed deal, which would have been one of the biggest mergers
in the technology sector and may have threatened Google's steady expansion on
the Web.
    Microsoft shares rose 2.6 percent on relief that it was not willing to
overpay for Yahoo, while Google rose 2.2 percent.
    The collapse of talks between Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer
and Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang prompted Wall Street brokerages to cut their ratings
and price targets on Yahoo, which held out for a $37 per share value despite a
sweetened off from Microsoft for $33 per share. 
    Yahoo shares fell 15 percent, or $4.43, to $24.24 after initially
falling as low as $22.97.
    Standard and Poor's Equity Strategist, Alec Young said that despite
Yahoo's stock plunge, there should be little effect from the deal collapse on
the rest of the market.
    "We think there maybe a very little, short term impact.  Whenever
you have a high profile piece of M & A that falls apart, you can see a
very short term impact, but we like the tech sector for fundamental reasons
and we don't think this really impacts the fundamental story beyond Yahoo and
Microsoft."
      The Dow Jones industrial average was down 52.19 points, or 0.40
percent, at 13,006.01. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index  was down 2.98
points, or 0.21 percent, at 1,410.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index  was down
3.08 points, or 0.12 percent, at 2,473.91.