Microsoft CEO stands by bid for Yahoo : US Business

SAN DONATO MILANESE, Italy (Reuters) - Microsoft's chief executive reiterated on Wednesday that the software giant stood by its bid for Yahoo and would "move forward" if the Internet company's board rejected it.

"We know what Yahoo is worth to us. We offered a lot of money: $44 billion. It is not a lot of euros anymore. If their board thinks that's fair, great. If not, we'll move forward," Steve Ballmer said at a company event.

Ballmer did not explain what he meant by moving forward.

He was responding to a question about whether Yahoo's better-than-expected results for the first quarter would lead to a change in Microsoft's bid.

Asked whether Microsoft could make a bid for Google , he said he did not think the Internet company would accept it for regulatory reasons, among other things.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson)

(c) Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.