The News....Would A Takeover Of Yahoo Matter?

(CBS) My reactions have been bouncing back and forth ever since I heard the news early Friday morning that Microsoft wants to devour Yahoo.

Part of me thought that Microsoft was up to its monopolistic tricks again, trying to buy its way into dominating in an area in which it hadn’t succeeded, despite years and billions of dollars of effort through MSN and Windows Live offerings.

Yahoo’s social networking effort, Yahoo 360, hasn’t done well, and so far Google’s Orkut is popular in Brazil and India but not in the U.S. or Europe. Microsoft does own Blogger.com, which is a nice tool for self-anointed pundits, but not a social networking site. [Microsoft’s offerings in the social networking arena are almost anemic.]

Then I read it, and realized it was official-

Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44,6bn

(Yeah, 44 BILLION dollars)

Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for around $44,6bn in cash and shares, to better compete with Google in the market for online services.

CEO Steve Ballmer made the offer in a letter to Yahoo’s board of directors last Thursday (Jan 31), telling the board that he would release the letter Friday morning. "By combining the assets of Microsoft and Yahoo we can offer a more competitive choice for consumers, advertisers and publishers," he says.

Microsoft-Yahoo

Bummer...