Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced that future decisions concerning the company’s direction after the bid withdrawal for Yahoo will be made by CEO Steve Ballmer.

After the $47.5 billion bid discussed over the past few months failed, many were curious whether the company will consider another deal of similar proportions with other interested parties.

"Well, the key decisions on that will be made by Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer, who took a look at Yahoo and decided that on our own he likes the stuff that we're doing," Gates said according to the Associated Press.

Before the end of negotiations, Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer offered to pay $33 per share or $47.5 billion for Yahoo, which was quite a significant raise from the initial offer of $31 per share or $44.6 billion. Unfortunately, Yahoo’s board demanded an offer of $37 per share, which was a figure way above the company’s worth over the past two years.

By the end of negotiations between the two companies, Microsoft’s offer had collapsed to $29.40 per share or $42.3 billion, as a direct result of the company’s declining stock which was supposed to finance the deal.

For the future, Microsoft might turn for collaborations to other large Internet companies such as Time Warner's AOL and News Corp.'s MySpace but also promising startups such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

"I wouldn't rule out some partnerships but we don't have anything imminent there," Bill Gates concluded, as quoted by Reuters.