The New York Times reported today that in an interview, Yahoo’s CEO and co-founder, Jerry Yang, claimed that Microsoft pulled its bid for his company after Yahoo counter offered the software giants previous bid.

This is in direct contrast to claims by Steve Ballmer and Microsoft’s advisers, that stated that the bid was pulled due to Yahoo’s unwillingness to counter, and Mr. Yang and his board’s decision to settle on a price of $37 a share their ultimate refusal to budge.

“They chose to walk away after we put a price on the table, and they didn’t want to negotiate,” Mr. Yang said. “From my perspective, we were open all along to selling to Microsoft. We just feel Yahoo, either stand-alone or with Microsoft, is worth more than what they put on the table.”

Techcrunch.com has released an email sent by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Microsoft employees:

This afternoon I sent the attached letter to Jerry Yang announcing that Microsoft has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo. We proposed the deal in the belief that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger would create a combined company with the resources and assets to win in the fast-growing market for advertising and online services.

Ballmer spends most the email bolstering the company’s initiatives in terms of Internet advertising, and explains that the Yahoo merger was more of an accelerated means to obtain the company’s vision on the Web rather than an end all be all.

Microsoft announced its plan to withdraw its proposal to acquire Yahoo! today.

This is a strange, and somewhat unexpected turn of events in the ongoing Microhoo saga.

In a letter, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated:

“We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition made sense for
Microsoft, Yahoo! and the market as a whole. Our goal in pursuing a
combination with Yahoo! was to provide greater choice and innovation in the
marketplace and create real value for our respective stockholders and
employees.”

The reason that Ballmer gave for the withdraw was:

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5
billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer. After careful
consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make
sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders,
employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal.”

In a move that would only shock SEOs working in 1998, a US court has deemed Meta keywords as “immaterial” as it relates to their effect on search rankings.

The decision was reached during the Standard Process, Inc. v. Banks case. Standard Process had filed suit against Dr. Scott J. Banks for trademark infringement, the alleged infringement coming at least partly by way of one of Standard Process’s trademarks being found in Bank’s Meta keywords tag .

As Barry Schawrtz commented on Search Engine Land:

Standard Process did win part of the case, the judge ruled that since the keyword META tags do not influence search results, having trademarked terms in them are immaterial. I do not have access to the court document on that specific decision, at this moment, but I trust Eric Goldman on that.

According to a federal class action lawsuit filed Tuesday April 22nd by Kabateck Brown Kellner, LLP in U.S. District Court, Google is deceiving its customers into paying for ads they do not want.

Brian Kabateck is the lead counsel on the case. He recently won a multi-million dollar settlement from Yahoo! and earlier a $90 million settlement from Google on behalf of advertisers victimized by click fraud.

According to a release from the firm, Kabateck stated:

“This debunks Google’s carefully cultivated image. Google is hurting its customers on two fronts. Google is not only taking money out of customers’ pockets, it’s derailing their advertising strategies as well.”