Tech & Biz

Microsoft Yahoo Deal - Rumors of Search Business Takeover Again!

by Kevin Fed | July 17, 2009 at 01:37 am

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Microsoft and Yahoo! Two IT industry giants. Two big name organizations. They might have been at loggerheads in the recent past mainly due to the famous failed takeover negotiations, but they still remain fierce competitors.

Both Microsoft and Yahoo! are trying newer ways and means to dethrone Google from its position of supremacy in the Search Engine market. Microsoft launched Bing with much fanfare and now reports of Microsoft buying Yahoo!s search engine business are surfacing again.

Whether this materializes or not and if it does what effect will it have on the search engine rivalry, only time will tell.

After almost 18 months of increasingly bitter negotiations, Microsoft is said to be closing in on a deal to buy technology rival Yahoo's web search business.

Several reports emerged late on Thursday suggesting that late-stage talks were under way between the two companies, opening up the distinct possibility that Microsoft could finally take control of Yahoo's search engine division.

An analyst with institutional investor ThinkEquity was quoted by investment website 24/7 Wall Street as saying a deal was "imminent", while sources told influential Silicon Valley blog All Things Digital that an agreement was close to being completed.

It is not clear what the precise terms of the deal on offer are, but according to 24/7 Wall Street, it could see Microsoft shell out around $3bn (£1.8bn) to take over Yahoo's search advertising operation. The deal, it suggests, would also see Microsoft agree to share revenue from the search business with Yahoo for several years.

Such a pact would bring to an end the tortured negotiations between the two companies, but it would be an incredible climbdown for Yahoo – which turned down the possibility of far more money when Microsoft launched an unsolicited $45bn bid to buy Yahoo in its entirety last February.