Microsoft bids for Yahoo

1 February 2008

Microsoft is attempting to buy Yahoo with an unsolicited offer worth $44.6 billion.

The proposal, valued at 62% more than Yahoo's closing share price yesterday, comes after Yahoo revealed a 23% decline in profits for the last quarter and announced 1,000 job losses.

In a statement accompanying the open letter to Yahoo's board of directors, Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft, said: "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."

"Today this market is increasingly dominated by one player," he added. "Together, Microsoft and Yahoo can offer a competitive choice while better fulfilling the needs of customers and partners."

Yahoo said today that its board will "evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo's strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximise long-term value for shareholders."

BBC News website's business editor Tim Weber notes that, should the deal be done, "it will be a shotgun marriage, but it will be Google holding the shotgun".

Category: Google, MSN, Search engines, Yahoo