Microsoft offering to buy Yahoo!

[kida]

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSWNAS894220080201?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

"Microsoft Corp has made an unsolicited offer to buy Yahoo Inc for $44.6 billion in cash and stock, seeking to join forces against Google Inc in what would be the biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner-AOL merger."

Hmm... The tech world is starting to look like the Cold War world - Microsoft and it's allies on one side with Google and it's allies on the other. I'm not the most tech savvy person, but this is starting to get interesting.

[xboxundone]

this has been rumored in the past that it would happen.. I wonder if Yahoo will take the bait or not... for either to compete with google they do have to buy out one or the other.... it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[kida]

Do you think Microsoft is treading on thin ice monopoly-wise? They're into pretty much anything you can think of.

[Guaner]

I think that they definitely want a monopoly but there is still too much ground to be won with Google and Apple hanging about.

[speedpro50]

edited - double post

[speedpro50]

Now you have Bill Gates saying Microsoft won't be raising their offer price. Sure is interesting / fun to watch a couple of multi-billion dollar companies go back and forth in the negotiation process. :)

[Guaner]

I wonder what deals will be made under the table per se versus out in the open.

[kida]

Microsoft just got smacked by the EU:
Microsoft was fined a record 899 million euros ($1.35 billion) (£680 million) by the European Commission on Wednesday for using high prices to discourage software competition in the latest sanction in their long-running battle.

The executive arm of the European Union said the U.S. software group defied a 2004 order from Brussels to provide the information on reasonable terms.

Microsoft has now been fined a total of 1.68 billion euros by the EU for abusing its 95 percent dominance of PC operating systems through Windows.

Its latest fine far exceeded the original and was the biggest ever imposed on a company.

"Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the Commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement.

For years after the decision Microsoft said it was making every effort to comply with the Commission's orders.

"Talk is cheap, flouting the rules is expensive," Kroes said. "We don't want talk and promises. We want compliance."