5 reasons why Microsoft will buy Yahoo! (MSNBC)

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5 reasons why Microsoft will buy Yahoo!
Joining teams will allow tech giants to take on Google

By Rich Duprey


The buyout buzz is building again. A story in this morning's New York Post indicates that Microsoft is still debating an offer to acquire online rival Yahoo!, even as Microsoft's chief deal-maker is leaving the company in March to start his own firm.

The deal would be huge. It's got to happen. And I'll give you five reasons why Microsoft must and will succeed in snapping up Yahoo!

1. 2 + 3 is still less than 1
The latest batch of Nielsen Online data is sobering. Google continues to grow its market share at the expense of Yahoo! and Microsoft. It's not even close, really.

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I disagree with each point the writer makes. And who uses yahoo to search ?
And I hope that MS does not buy out Yahoo. What yahoo does good for me is email i could care less about search or news. And this is on MS web site talk about conflict of interest. So thumbs down.

Believe it or not, but a lot of people still use Yahoo. (I don't)

In my opinion Microsoft should buy out both Yahoo and AOL, if done Microsoft would basically dominate the messenger part of the Internet. They could also make the Yahoo site redirect to Windows Live or whatever they're using now. That could be useful for reasons other than making the current Yahoo users use Microsoft's crap search, but OS X and certain Linux distros already have Yahoo as a bookmark, so curious users could be linked there. I personally think it would be good on Microsoft's part as far as advertising goes.

I would think the thing to do would be to leave Yahoo! more or less the way it is to avoid eroding that customer base.

The business reasons aside who doesn't use Google now days for search? MS wants to assimilate the Internet and therefore shouldn't buy Yahoo until Vista has SP2 and XP has SP3 and is available for dual booting on all new PCs.

I didn't know that Google uses Ubuntu on their servers. But seriously does anybody want a company to have its servers subject to MS Patching (patch patch service pack patch (patch the patch))

Doing this will only make google's success bigger after they fail.

I use YIM for instant messaging.

Microsoft offers $44.6B for Yahoo (AP)

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.'s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.

The surprise offer of $31 per share, made late Thursday and announced Friday, seizes on Yahoo's weakness while Microsoft tries to muscle up in a high-stakes battle with Google likely to define the technology landscape for years to come.

In a statement Friday, Yahoo said it will "carefully and promptly" study Microsoft's bid.

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What a Microsoft-Yahoo deal would mean (MSN)

Combining the two companies is considered a good start in the battle with rival Google, but the latter remains a formidable online foe.

By Forbes.com

Microsoft may be the biggest software company in the world, but would buying Yahoo for nearly $45 billion mean it can effectively combat Google in the online stakes? Let's just say it's a step in the right direction.

Microsoft (MSFT, news, msgs) made its first official bid for Yahoo (YHOO, news, msgs) today, at a price of $31 per share, or $44.6 billion. This represents a whopping 62% premium to the Internet portal's closing price on Jan. 31 and points to a sense of urgency in the fight against leading search player Google (GOOG, news, msgs).

Shares of Yahoo had soared 48.12%, to $28.41, by shortly after 2 p.m. ET. Microsoft's shares were down 6.6%, to $30.45, and Google's had fallen 8%, to $519.25. Speculation had been rife last year that such a deal would occur, especially with Google's increasing dominance. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)

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Poll: Microsoft's bid for Yahoo! (MSN)

Microsoft is making a bid to buy Yahoo, which response best describes your reaction?
It's a good move for Microsoft and Yahoo. 68%
Yahoo should remain independent. 26%
Yahoo should be sold to another company. 6%
1440 responses, not scientifically valid, results updated every minute.

2:25 PM EST

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/In ... ?GT1=10926

Congressional hearing will scrutinize Microsoft bid for Yahoo (AFP)

by Glenn Chapman

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - The US Congress Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing next week to scrutinize Microsoft's multi-billion-dollar bid to acquire Yahoo in order to take on Internet goliath Google.

Leading members of the committee scheduled a February 8 hearing after Microsoft's announced Friday it is courting California-based Yahoo with a 44.6-billion-dollar offer.

"Microsoft's bid to acquire Yahoo is certainly one of the largest technology mergers we've seen and presents important issues regarding the competitive landscape of the Internet," Congressmen John Conyers and Lamar Smith said in a written statement.

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The thing is that Google's approach is very integrated now;

They've got

Search + News + Alerts
Mail (gmail)
Chat (GoogleTalk)
Blogging (blogger)
Photos (picasa)
RSS (Reader)
Social Networking (OpenSocial)
Web Page Design (Google Pages)
Office Products (Writer etc...)
Videos (YouTube)
Analytics

The interfaces are similar, the logins are all connected and the data sharing is extraordinary.

Similarly, IBM have all of their products well integrated now - even offering a Linux file server with authentication, Symphony (their "free" version of OpenOffice, Plus Notes/Domino - (mail, database, collaboration), WebSphere, Sametime and the Eclipse Framework.

What is Microsoft doing????

We're fast approaching a time where you don't need to worry what OS you use, because you've got the Google stuff available to you. If you need enterprise versions of things, Google has an enterprise arm, and if that's not good enough, IBM now have a complete replacement for MS in the enterprise (which runs on multiple OSes).

MS's own products don't show this integration and cross-platform independency now... how do they expect to show it using someone else's code. (yahoo?)

I think MS has realized that they aren't going to be able to make money off Operating Systems and software indefinitely. They have to provide a service, as opposed to a product, and they haven't figured out how to make money with MSN yet. I don't think buying Yahoo! is going to fix MS's service arm, but it should make them more competitive, and that's good for comsumers.