Microsoft Offers $44.6b for Yahoo

In a bid that would mark the biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner-AOL merger, and that experts believe could equip both companies to take on search engine giant Google, Microsoft has made an voluntary tender to purchase Yahoo for $44.6 billion in cash and stock, it announced on Friday.

In what may possibly be noted as its most audacious acquisition move to date, Microsoft offered $31 per share for Yahoo, or a 62 percent premium over the Internet media company’s closing stock price on NASDAQ Thursday.

Yahoo, who said it would assess the bid, shares jumped to $30.75 in pre-market trading, while Microsoft shares, which have a market capitalization of about $300 billion, fell six percent to $30.78.

According to reports, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, says that after 18 months of talks with Yahoo, this bid marks “the next major milestone” for Microsoft and that he is very positive that this is the right course for both Yahoo and the software giant.

Conjecture over a Microsoft move on Yahoo has circulated for at least a year, as investors speculated whether the two would collaboration in opposition to a constantly more dominant Google.

Internet audience researcher comScore has estimated by that Google’s share of the worldwide Web search market has attained 77 percent, while Yahoo is second with 16 percent and Microsoft was a far-away third with 3.7 percent.