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Software giant Microsoft has made an an unsolicited $44.6 billion US bid for Internet media company Yahoo! Inc
OTTAWA – Software giant Microsoft has made an an unsolicited $44.6 billion US bid for Internet media company Yahoo! Inc.
Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, offered $31 US a share in cash or stock for Yahoo!, a 62 per cent premium over the stock’s closing price Thursday.
“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,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft.
“We believe our combination will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders and better choice and innovation to our customers and industry partners.”
The online advertising market is expected to double from $40 billion in 2007 to $80 billion by 2010, Microsoft said in announcing the offer.
It said the resulting benefits of scale, along with the associated capital costs for advertising platform providers, make this a time of industry consolidation and convergence.
Although the market is dominated by Google, Microsoft said the combined companies can offer a competitive choice.