Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion For Yahoo
Microsoft already took a 1.6% stake in Facebook for $240 Million last year. Now Microsoft shakes up the digital media landscape by announcing its $44.6 Billion bid for Yahoo. The software giant announced this morning its intentions to bid $31 a share for struggling Yahoo.
“We’re very excited about today’s announcement,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said on the same call. Ballmer called the move for Yahoo the “next major milestone in Microsoft’s company-wide transformation to embrace online services overall and invest in search and advertising”.
Furthermore Ballmer said he also wanted Yahoo management and employees to be excited about the deal. He said he called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang last night to discuss the proposal, something Microsoft has been thinking about for the last 18 months.
So the rumor that Bill Gates will be heading Microsoft’s Search strategy coming 2 years, might be true?! Would you like to see Microsoft take over Yahoo? Show us your thoughts below!
(Source: Ad Age)
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Cool...
laurens February 1st, 2008 at 17:27
Wish I had some Yahoo shares, shot up by 50% this morning…
Niels van Esch February 1st, 2008 at 17:28
So much for this prophecy: http://www.viralblog.com/2008/01/02/prometeus-the-media-revolution/ Amazon buys Yahoo? Correction! Microsoft buys Yahoo. Let’s see whether the rest of these prophecies withstand the overconsumptive powers of the online titans:
“The media arena is less and less populated. Only the Tyrannosaurus Rex survives. The Net includes and unifies all the content. Google buys Microsoft. Amazon buys Yahoo! and become the world universal content leaders with BBC, CNN and CCTV.”
Igor Beuker February 1st, 2008 at 17:33
@ Niels
I think Yahoo made a tremendous mistake by missing the SEA battle.. now they are up for sale
If they would have grabbed more search dollars, they probably would have been too expensive to buy…
Painful, painful strategic mistake … Let’s call it a blooper …
Cheers
Daan Jansonius February 2nd, 2008 at 03:03
It will be interesting to see what happens to sites like Flickr and Del.icio.us, which are in the Yahoo portfolio.
Seth Godin wrote an interesting piece about it too:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/05/thinking_about_.html
Igor Beuker February 2nd, 2008 at 03:14
@ Daan
I think Seth has worked at Yahoo! for many years…
As it looks from his article he doesn’t seem that happy for many Yahooligans?
If the deal will take place, Microsoft will own a huge chunk of the IM market worldwide, with MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger..
Sometimes I do have the feeling that Microsoft will by Skype as well…
Cheers
Daan Jansonius February 2nd, 2008 at 12:10
Yahooligans - I like it!
You are right he has worked there for a while, after they acquired his company.
With Google stepping into the mobile game it could be an option for Microsoft to buy Skype and head in the same direction. But I think they should focus on search first if they want to stand a chance to beat the Google machine.
Walter Schwabe February 10th, 2008 at 10:21
I’m actually glad the deal was turned down by the board…this would have been a disaster.
Igor Beuker February 12th, 2008 at 19:01
@ Walter
Yes I saw it on CNN.. think it’s good they said no…
Cheers
Walter Schwabe February 13th, 2008 at 08:19
MS has been behind on so many fronts it’s not even funny…behind on the Internet, behind on search, behind on elegant desktop design, behind on security…MS would have been this mega ton anchor attached to Yahoo…thank goodness Mr. Yang and crew were able to see past the short-term dollars signs…