Microsoft Trying To Buy Yahoo!

You and I know good and well that Microsoft wasn't going to go down in search flames without putting up a fight after losing the 'Battle at AOL-burg' to Google. Microsoft has officially thrown the gloves off and pulled out its' wallet. Microsoft, like the rest of us would do, pulled out some billion dollar bills, 80 to be exact, and slid them over to Yahoo in attempt to buy Yahoo Inc. This rumored bid was slightly more then 30% of Yahoo's current market value and they kindly said ..... NO?

Now this is either Yahoo playing hardball or just knowing the prediciment that Microsoft is in and hoping to squeeze another 10 of those billion dollar bills out of Mr. Bill Gates' Wallet.

Will Microsoft do it? Will Yahoo take a 90 billion dollar offer from Bill? Only time will tell but if this does happen, it would be one of the biggest stories to hit the online world in recent memory and would solidify Microsoft as a serious player in the contextual ad market and we all know this is the space that everyone is trying to get a piece of.

From the LA Times piece...

Within days, speculation was rampant that Microsoft, determined to keep itself in the game, had offered to buy Yahoo Inc. for $80 billion. If rumors were to be believed, the Microsoft bid — a premium of more than 30% over the Web giant's current market value — was rejected by Yahoo as too low.

Will Microsoft spend $90 billion or more to buy Yahoo or, alternatively, AOL parent Time Warner? Maybe not, especially when the software giant could buy Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp at a fraction of the price. If owned by Microsoft, Diller's collection of websites such as Ask Jeeves, Expedia, HSN.com, LendingTree and Ticketmaster could help drive traffic to MSN.