Steven A. Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, told shareholders on Wednesday that the company was no longer interested in acquiring Yahoo, setting off a 21 percent decline in Yahoo’s share price.
“We’ve moved on,” Mr. Ballmer said.
He reiterated that a partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo in the Internet search market was an “an interesting possibility.” There are currently no talks about such an agreement, he said.
Mr. Ballmer’s stance may force Yahoo’s next chief executive to find another way to revive the company’s profit, which declined in 10 of the last 11 quarters as sales growth stalled. Yahoo’s chief executive, Jerry Yang, who spurned Microsoft bids of as much as $47.5 billion this year, announced plans two days ago to step down.
Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., fell $2.41, or 21 percent, to $9.14 a share. The shares, down 61 percent this year, are trading at their lowest price since February 2003. The shares rose 12 percent the day after Mr. Yang announced his decision as investors bet that Microsoft would reopen talks.
Microsoft offered as much as $33 a share for Yahoo in an effort to increase its share of Internet searches and close the gap with Google in online advertising.
Stock in Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., fell $1.33, or 6.8 percent, to close at $18.29 a share. Mr. Yang, who will step down when his replacement is found, has said he is open to new talks.
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