Updated below: During a press conference at the German tech show CeBIT, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer reiterated that his company’s current offer for Yahoo is fair and that the company is still working to get the deal done at the current price. The statement, reported by Reuters, comes amid a period of relative quiet on the MSFT-YHOO front. It also conforms to every other public statement from Microsoft, in that it has no intention of budging on price (whether it feels differently in private is a totally different matter). Cryptically, Ballmer added: “There’s been a range of dialogue and there’s a range of alternatives being considered. I think it’s best for me not to get into the detail.” This follows a AFP report last week, that at a Tokyo press conference, Microsoft SVP Jean-Philippe Courtois said his company had been in dialogue with Yahoo shareholders and management.

Updated: MSFT CFO Chris Liddell spoke at the Morgan Stanley tech conference today, and had this to say about that small company it is planning to acquire (from the SEC filing):
MARY MEEKER: In our remaining minute, anything that you’d like to address that we’ve missed?

CHRIS LIDDELL: Well, no one asked me about Yahoo, which is interesting. But I’m sure everyone is vaguely interested in it. You know, their —

MARY MEEKER: What was that? What was that?

CHRIS LIDDELL: Yeah. The small company that we’re looking to acquire. There is — there’s no fundamental news. I mean, the — you know, the company has not yet formally responded to our offer. So you’ve seen the same press reports we have in terms of their view of it. You know, we continue to look at our options, and that’s something that I’m incredibly systematic about. That’s something that we look at, those alternatives, every week on the basis of what’s happening in the external market: what the opportunities for us are both in our customer business and through acquisition. So, you know, we’ll continue to look at those alternatives as we go forward, but there’s no news, per se, on Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO). 

• Kevin Johnson: Yahoo Offer Fair; Business As Usual; Thinking About Brands; The Culture Thing