Microsoft In £22.4bn Yahoo Bid

Microsoft has offered to buy the search engine company Yahoo for $44.6bn (£22.4bn) in cash and shares.

It has been struggling in recent years to compete with Google, which has also been a competitor to Microsoft.

"We have great respect for Yahoo, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market," Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said.

[mighty_douche]

Why bother? Google have it all sown up!

[predator]

Thats a lot of money.

[eLiNeS]

It does not seem like a good move to me. I never use Yahoo nor do I know anyone that does, I am sure a few do but Google FTW!!!

[Capt CHAOS]

As if their turn over is that much..

Give me two billion and a year and I'll build you google v2.00

[wageslave]

"Its a lot of money" to you and I sure.

But MS's market capital is $283 Billion and YHOO is $37 Billion.

Yahoo vastly smaller and its operating units will certainly be easily integrated into MSFT.

This is a great deal for MSFT & YHOO, but GOOG has to be shiating the bed right about now.

[masterg]

@eLiNeS

Yahoo is the number one website in the world. Not Google (number 2).

[robbo918]

Revenue from Google in the online world is greater than Yahoo and also from what Microsoft had prior to this deal:

In the most recent quarter, Microsoft had online revenue of $863 million, compared with $4.8 billion at Google. Yahoo and Microsoft together had more than $2.6 billion in revenue, still trailing well behind Google but in a far stronger competitive position.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008...

[0LDSCH00L]

Go MS! next up.. Logitech.

[Bladestar]

tell me about it... I purchased a bunch of Logitech shares hoping this happends... I knew about yahoo possible microsoft buy I'm honesly not sure if this is a good move... Yahoo shares just jump from $19 to $29... not bad for those that owned the shares... I think it may go as high as $33... best since nov... yahoo stocks are are in for a ride... jump or jump out? what to do!?

[Iron Man 2]

You gotta love Microsoft!/sarcasm

Google FTW!;)

[Iamback]

44 billion dollar for that crap? Give me 100k i can make better use of it. Christ some people have 2 much money

[TheTwelve]

Alot of people have said that Microsoft is losing in so many areas...but let's not forget that they've got ridiculous amounts of money.

12

[Hugh Hefner]

Care to elaborate which areas are they losing and to whom? (Besides losing the videogame console war to the Wii)

[TheTwelve]

No need to elaborate since, if you read what I said again, I only stand firmly behind the fact that Microsoft has a lot of money. As to what "people" have said, a simple Google search will do you wonders and answer that far better than I can.

12

[Ric Flair]

Whooo

[Hugh Hefner]

Damm! MS Monopoly FTW!!!

[wageslave]

MS is not a monopoly of anything. What are you talking about?

They are in many varied markets, and have large (OS) and smaller (Zune) shares of the segments they're in.

One thing, in each area, they are incredibly competitive. There are few markets (any?) where they are *loosing* share in any significant way.

[anh_duong]

jerry will be happy.. 60% premium on yesterday's closing price..

[welsh_rocker]

I hope Yahoo rejects this bid Microsoft own enough now they are trying to a monopoly in everything or I hope Google jumps in with a higher offer or better deal.

[actas123]

Why pay 60% premium over yesterdays price? for god sakes yahoo is financially struggling? Its not like Microsoft can do magic in the advertisement field, I mean look at msn search engine and all, it stinks.

[zonetrooper5]

Its another way for MS to fight back against Google, I do admit I use google over any other search engine. MSN and Yahoo could then be joined together to make it even better. Maybe its better for MS to buy Ask.com rather than Yahoo.

I really wish that MS would launch Zune over here in the UK.

[Zhuk]

I doubt this will stop me using LIVE search, but I think that this will be a good move for Microsoft regardless, I might even start using Yahoo again which I stopped using in the 90s

[antoinetm]

www.google.com

you should try it :P

[Gina-get-u]

Zhuk, congratulations. You seem to have perfected your droll little schtick, as it never fails to crack me up even though I can see it coming a mile away.

[darkside]

I'm pretty sure you u work for M$....no one can be that dumb :)

[Boink]

but the yahoo portal is the second largest one out there aside from google, and MSN is the third. that puts them in a much better position to go against google, and lets not forget their new stake in facebook.

could you imagine the popularity of being able to acces facebook, yahoo/live messenger and XBL services from one spot?

i'd be there.

[LJWooly]

A simple Google search can get you all that in seconds.

Microsoft, don't do this, even if they have more money than God, this is still a silly move that they cannot gain from.

[spirited]

even bill gates is not as loyal to Microsoft as you are Zhuk

GET a life

[kewlkat007]

Basically to go against "Google". We all know that "Live" crap is not turning much heads.

Google(desktop search, search-engine, Ads, smartphone OS soon) has been the biggest desktop threat to MS in a while, since "Netscape" and "Mozilla" of course.

Yahoo is number 2 in "search" and "news" if anybody is wondering...I think they are up there in shopping too..but it's all about "Advertisements".

[wageslave]

"We all know that "Live" crap is not turning much heads"

You'd be wrong at that.

http://www.alexa.com/data/d...

See that blue line? The one skyrocketing up? That is live.com See that red line? The one that is basically flat, the line that the blue line has almost approached? That would be google.com.

In short, LIVE.com has has been a tremendous success.

[tfur]

http://www.alexa.com/site/h...

"The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach)."

That graph is ONLY of users of the "Alexa Toolbar"... so that chart is meaningful for only users of that toolbar.

Don't fool yourself to think that live.com has anywhere near the traffic of google. That is absolutely absurd.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Back when I learned that MSN Messenger users and Yahoo IM users could link up via Messenger to chat, I figured something was brewing between the two.

For MS, this would be a very solid move. Yahoo has some great partnerships on the IM and email side that many over look. This would bolster MS's reach into those communities and allow them to expand the LIVE synchronization of home and computer.

I think this is less about the actual search engine Yahoo has and more about the partnerships they have established and how it helps MS's global push.

[toughNAME]

Nope, they should save this money for Facebook

[Bnet343]

They bought Facebook shares.

[Bleucrunch]

Microsoft just has money to waste.

[Kyur4ThePain]

If you can't beat them, buy them.
*sigh*

[THE_JUDGE]

I will have to stop using Yahoo too. Sorry fanboys but MS pretty much taints anything it touches.

[robbo918]

I cannot stand Microsoft for a lot of reasons dating back to how they "created" Windows. I have never liked their tactics and while yes I agree all companies are out to make a profit personally I have just never liked M$ and their approach.

I dumped hotmail a long long time ago, am close to dumping Windows, and just deleted my Yahoo account a few minutes ago. I hadn't been using it much anyway since I moved to gmail and google but I felt like deleting the yahoo one as a personal choice.

See ya Yahoo, enjoy your new buddy Billy!

[anh_duong]

one of the main reason msft bought yhoo was to gain a share of alibaba.. alibaba is the biggest b2b website in china and until yesterday represented 50% of the value of yhoo... msft wants to use alibaba as a springboard into e-commerce into china.

[IntelligentAj]

I read the rumors but I honestly didn't think they would make a formal proposal. In any event it has to get the regulatory commissions and there is a slight chance of that happening. Go MS.

[Gamingshouldbefun]

i dont get it why would someone use yahoo?
google got all thats needed!

I remember the days when I was noob with internet but thanks to google I got around it pretty fast and its been my homepage for 8 years or something. so yeah m$ wont buy me.