Yahoo, under pressure to accept a US$41 billion buyout offer by Microsoft, said Monday it doesn't oppose the deal but wants a better deal, the Associated Press reported.

The statement comes after Microsoft warned Saturday that if a deal isn't reached within three weeks, it will launch a hostile takeover at a lower price.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock Monday sent out a letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

"We are open to all alternatives that maximise stockholder value. To be clear, this includes a transaction with Microsoft if it represents a price that fully recognises the value of Yahoo on a standalone basis and to Microsoft, is superior to our other alternatives, and provides certainty of value and certainty of closing," Yang and Bostock stated in the letter.

Yang and Bostock assert in the letter that Microsoft has mischaracterised the company's discussions, and say its threat of a hostile takeover is "counterproductive," according to the AP article posted by MediaInfoCenter.