Microsoft Pursuing Yahoo! NEW YORK - Microsoft Corp. is resuming its pursuit of search engine operator Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) that could help it better compete with Web search leader Google Inc., published reports said Friday. Yahoo shares surged more than 18 percent in morning trading. The New York Post reported Friday that Microsoft has asked Yahoo to enter formal negotiations for an acquisition that could be worth $50 billion. Yahoo's market capitalization was about $38 billion on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal said executives of the two companies are looking at a merger or some other kind of matchup and said the talks appear to be early-stage discussions. It said the companies explored the idea of combining last year but the talks led nowhere. The newspaper reports each cited unidentified people familiar with the situation. Microsoft is feeling increasing pressure to compete with Google, which plans to beef up its portfolio with a $3.1 billion purchase of online advertising company DoubleClick Inc. Microsoft currently trails both Yahoo and Google in the lucrative and growing business of Web search. Google won a search advertising deal with AOL in 2005 that the Post said Microsoft wanted. In addition, Google is developing Web-based software that directly competes with Microsoft Office. The Post story said Microsoft and Yahoo have held informal talks over the years and said Microsoft's latest approach to Yahoo signals increased urgency. Earlier this week, Yahoo said it would buy 80 percent of advertising exchange Right Media for $680 million, increasing its stake in that company to full control. Yahoo shares surged $5.14, or 18.2 percent, to $33.32 in morning trading, while shares of Microsoft fell 57 cents to $30.40
Yahoo ruined Yahoo, Semel a former hollywood deal maker had NO idea what he was getting into when he "turned" tech with Yahoo.. He couldn't even understand why it was so important to BUY Google when they had the chance and TOTALLY low balled Google and didn't think twice about it when Google rejected the offer.. Yahoo IMO hasn't been right for the last 5 years..
Has Microsoft tried to buy GOOGLE before? I wonder if they have and if so, what Google said. I personally like YAHOO! better... I don't know why, but their pages that their engine finds always come up faster than google's to me.
This deals been speculated for over a year now, and it's about time this deal gets under way. Hopefully Microsoft buys Yahoo, and fires all the top management for being born and allowed to run Yahoo into the ground.
I never ever use any MS portal for anything and almost never use Yahoo. My hope was MS would be driven into the ground by two superior rivals. If MS buys Yahoo, I hope they completely ruin it and lose a lot of money. I'm a big Google user and I want them to succeed until MS has it's legs cut off.
Be very careful putting all of your faith in Google. They may very well supplant M$ as the new Evil Empire.
I hate to agree. Semel tried to go big media and ended up making Yahoo look stagnant. An MS purchase of Yahoo would be on the hopes of turning back Yahoo 5 years.
