The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, describes the secret meeting the first since Microsoft made its unsolicited offer on January 31 as a breakthrough in communication between the two camps.
The meeting wasn't a negotiation and no bankers attended. The session allowed Microsoft to present its vision of a combined company. Yahoo!
executives mostly listened, one attendee said.
The meeting took place near Yahoo!'s Sunnyvale HQ. It wasn't known if Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang or Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took part.
Yahoo! has extended the deadline for shareholders to nominate director candidates to be voted on at its AGM. Microsoft may nominate a slate to try to push the US$41.9 billion deal through. The extension relieved pressure on both Yahoo! and Microsoft, which would have faced a deadline on Friday to make nominations.
