With its multibillion-dollar Yahoo merger bid yanked from the table, the Microsoft chairman said at a Tokyo press conference on Wednesday that the software giant has no immediate plans to jump on another deal.
The Microsoft founder said Microsoft has spent a lot of energy on trying to wrap up a deal with Yahoo, but ultimately decided that it was better to leave it behind.
"At this point, Microsoft is focused on its independent strategy," he said.
Microsoft abandoned its proposal to acquire Yahoo on Saturday.
In a letter to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer confirmed that Microsoft was willing to offer US$33 a share, but that Yahoo was holding out for at least US$37 a share, or US$5 billion more than Microsoft was prepared to spend.
Analysts say that Yahoo stockholders are likely to put pressure on the firm to quickly come up with an impressive business plan or try to return to the negotiating table with Microsoft.
Yang said in an interview with the Financial Times published yesterday that Yahoo had been willing to do a deal and was open to renewing negotiations with Microsoft.
Microsoft's Plan B could include beefing up its engineering ranks and looking at other business partnerships.
Some of those partnerships could include Facebook, in which Microsoft is already a minority investor, and MySpace.com.
Shares of Yahoo were down 1.87 percent, to US$25.25, in early-morning trading Wednesday.
AAP and Ina Fried of CNET News.com contributed to this article
