Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion

Microsoft has made an offer to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion, in a bold bid to transform the two ailing internet businesses into a worthy competitor for market leader Google. Yahoo has said its board will evaluate the unsolicited offer.

In a letter sent to Yahoo’s board of directors, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has offered $31 per share in cash and stock. The price is a 62 per cent premium over Yahoo’s Thursday (Jan 31, 2008) close, reports Guardian Unlimited.

According to Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, Dataquest, the mega-bid is an acknowledgement of Microsoft’s failure to monetize its online presence and unshakeable dominance of Google. “If the bid goes through, Microsoft will have as much of a challenge integrating two vastly different companies with different cultures, as HP did with Compaq,” Roy has said.