Report: Microsoft Interested in Buying Yahoo Again

Microsoft and private equity firm Silver lake Partners have apparently been drafting plans to submit a bid to acquire Yahoo. However, there are also talks of a cross talk ban, which would require parties interested in buying Yahoo not to talk anyone else and submit joint-bids after they gain access to sensitive financial data at Yahoo.

The move seems to be designed to increase competition among bidders and drive the price for Yahoo up. However, it could also alienate potential buyers and at a market cap of $20.4 billion, Yahoo is a big piece to swallow. Microsoft remains as the only likely buyer that could swallow a company the size of Yahoo. Microsoft offered close to $45 billion for Yahoo, but could get away with far less this time, especially if there aren't many bidders left.

So far, the acquisition talks are based on rumors and speculation. Yahoo has not publicly confirmed that it is available to be acquired. According to Comscore, Yahoo has about 17.2 percent search market share in the U.S.. Google is ahead with 65.4 percent, Microsoft is behind with 13.4 percent.

  • whitecrowro
    Skype gone, Yahoo is next..
    Market share war prone to be lost. These giants are already too big.
    Spending billions instead of making your cloud (sites) better at raining dollars sounds desperate to me.
    Reply
  • captaincharisma
    like it wasn't serious last time?
    Reply
  • warmon6
    jeez... i thought MS bought yahoo already.......

    I think i need a brain check......... XD
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    what do they have to gain from this? Bing is already kicking yahoo's butt, hotmail is sadly better than Y-mail (though y-mail is bigger I suppose), I just dont understand. It made sense when they were looking last time and Bing was entering the market, but now the only point would be to buy it in order to keep someone else from buying it.
    Reply
  • ohim
    Am i the only one who thinks they are actually after the instant messaging features only ? I mean they bought Skype now yahoo ... for Yahoo messenger ? And to be honest ... the eyecandy interface of MS`s Messenger combined with Yahoo`s texting and ease of use with Skype`s video calls would make the best instant messenger ever .. but that`s just my opinion.
    Reply
  • maxinexus
    This is not going to happen, again.
    Reply
  • jdamon113
    Its just a sign, Microsoft is stright out of Ideas. It cant win , if it was not for the common practices of windows it would die.
    I am a Netadmin.. we use all Server with Microsoft, I wish we could go back to Unix.. I miss Solaris. We even now have a few apples in our mist. once everything goes web based. MS pc's will start falling like leaves during Fall.
    They need to step back and move in a diffrent direction.
    Reply
  • BREAKING NEWS:
    Microsoft enjoys throwing money out the window. More at 11.
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    CaedenVwhat do they have to gain from this? Bing is already kicking yahoo's butt, hotmail is sadly better than Y-mail (though y-mail is bigger I suppose), I just dont understand. It made sense when they were looking last time and Bing was entering the market, but now the only point would be to buy it in order to keep someone else from buying it.
    Eliminate the competition.

    Microsoft is really doing us a favor. There's too much stuff on the net nowadays and useless companies like Yahoo need to be shut down, but they won't do it on their own, so go MS! Yahoo services are redundant; Google is way more useful.

    jdamon113Its just a sign, Microsoft is stright out of Ideas. It cant win , if it was not for the common practices of windows it would die. I am a Netadmin.. we use all Server with Microsoft, I wish we could go back to Unix.. I miss Solaris. We even now have a few apples in our mist. once everything goes web based. MS pc's will start falling like leaves during Fall. They need to step back and move in a diffrent direction.
    I hope YOU will fall instead. Cloud computing is death of consumer computing's freedom.
    Reply
  • de5_Roy
    This time, it appears to be serious.
    as serious as the time microsoft discontinued zune? :P
    Cloud computing is death of consumer computing's freedom.
    +1.
    i'd like my data with inside my pc's storage and not on some faraway storage which might fail any time and inconvenience me (even if the cloud storage had fail-proof systems in place).
    Reply