Microsoft Makes $44.6 Billion Offer to Buy Yahoo
Microsoft has made a surprise $44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo at $31 per share share.Yahoo issued a statement saying they would consider the offer. Yahoo said that its board will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly, in the context of Yahoos strategic plans, and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said they could help Yahoo compete: We have great respect for Yahoo, and together, we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers, and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online-services market,Yahoo recently laid off over 1,000 employees. They are a great company with numerous online products including several recently purchased social media sites like Blo.gs and del.icio.us. They also have a significant media side with original content and acquisitions like Rivals.com. It will be interesting to see whether Microsoft can convince Yahoo shareolders that this is the best option for them or whether Yahoo shareholders believe the company can do better by staying independent.Yahoos shares YHOO are up over 44% on news of the deal reports Marketwatch.Google shares are down significantly on the news because of concerns that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger could threaten Googles search and online advertising dominance.Microsoft views Yahoo as its best chance to thwart Google, which has leveraged its leadership in Internet search and advertising to emerge as an increasingly serious threat to the worlds largest software makers persuasive influence on how people interact with computers.Google already controls nearly 60 percent of the U.S. search market, and has been widening its lead, despite concerted efforts by both second-place Yahoo and third-place Microsoft. By combining, Microsoft and Yahoo would have a 33 percent share of the U.S. search market, according to the latest data from comScore Media Metrix.By joining forces, Microsoft and Yahoo also would widen their narrowing advantage over Google in providing free e-mail accounts -- a service that helps foster more loyalty with users and create more advertising opportunities.Google shares GOOG are down 9% on the news in early trading today.Permalink | Recent Headlines | WWFeeds.comAdvertisement:Find flowers, greeting cards, candy, gift ideas and morein ShoppersShop.coms Valentines Day Shopping section.
How High Will Google Go?
Google, which trades on the Nasdaq as GOOG, is getting close to the $600 mark. The stock has been on an incredible ride since it started trading at $85 in 2004.Google, which began trading at $85 in 2004, has the sixth- highest stock price in the U.S. and has surged 27 percent this year. The shares rose $1.84 to $584.39 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market and earlier reached $596.81.The search engine has taken users from Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp., pushing sales growth to at least 70 percent in each of the past three years. Google plans to lure more Web surfers and advertisers through the YouTube video site, bought last year, and has introduced software to sell mobile ads.Google is still dominating, Piper Jaffray & Co. Web analysts including Gene Munster said in an Oct. 1 report.Munster, in Minneapolis, rates the stock outperform and estimates it will reach $660 within a year as Google parlays its lead in search into other areas of online advertising next year.Google may very well break the $600 mark and even $650 but how much upside can be left for this powerful technology firm? Henry Blodget has suggested GOOG could trade as high as $2,000Remember a couple years back when some analyst floated the idea that Google could eventually be worth $2,000 a share--and was ridiculed from coast to coast? Well, first its worth noting that Google is now almost a third of the way there. Second, its worth noting that $2,000 a share would mean a market cap of about $750 billion, which--given a reasonable time horizon--just isnt that far-fetched.Why? First, from a macro level, in every technology wave, the market leader usually ends up amassing more power, wealth, and market capitalization than the leaders in the prior wave, often by a startling magnitude. The leaders in the last technology wave included Microsoft and Cisco, both of which peaked around $500 billion in market capitalization...Blodgets remark has stirred up controversy among tech and financial bloggers - see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. You can check the latest GOOG quote here on Yahoo Finance.Permalink | Recent Headlines | WWFeeds.comAd: Singers Sing is a music news blog.Feed: Bloglines | Google | Netvibes | Other Readers
