Microsoft Offers $44.6 Billion For Yahoo!

Yahoo! Microsoft! I can see a lot of people screaming monopoly over this, but even with the combination of Yahoo and Microsoft, they're still not even close to Google. Yahoo has been floundering for some time now and this is good chance for a lot of people to keep their jobs. The real winner here is the consumers. This means more free stuff.

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 Justice Department says it is interested in reviewing antitrust issues associated with it. 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. With its profits steadily sliding, Yahoo's stock slipped to a four-year low earlier this week and a new management team has been trying to steer a turnaround but sees more turbulence through 2008. The announcement lifted Yahoo's share price by almost 50 percent in morning trading, while Google fell almost 8 percent, dragged down by a fourth-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street expectations.