BEIJING, May 7 -- Bill Miller of Legg Mason Inc, Yahoo! Inc's second-largest investor, said Microsoft Corp may return to buyout talks after its offer was rejected.

    "I'm more puzzled by Microsoft's not going up to 37 U.S. dollars than Yahoo's wanting to walk away," Miller said. Legg Mason held 83.8 million Yahoo shares as of December, or 6.3 percent of the total, according to Bloomberg News data.

    Yahoo's demand for 5 billion dollars more, or 37 dollars a share compared with the offer of 33 dollars, equals just 2 percent of Microsoft's market value, said Miller, who runs Legg Mason Value Trust in Baltimore. That's little more than a daily change in Microsoft's stock, he said.

    Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and his team now face more pressure to produce, said Miller, who was critical of Yahoo's plan to work with Google Inc on search advertising.

    "If they want to be a viable competitor, I would expect them to come back," said Miller, 58, whose 15-year record of beating the Standard & Poor's 500 Index ended in 2006. "Microsoft needs Yahoo much more than Yahoo needs Microsoft."

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)