In the high-stakes battles for the big bucks of the US online advertising market, Microsoft made an eye-popping hostile attempt to take over giant search engine Yahoo. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer announced an unsolicited take-over bid for Yahoo at US$44.6 billion, saying he is prepared to pay US$31 per share in cash or stock, or a 62-percent premium above the company’s closing stock price on Nasdaq on Tuesday (29 Jan 2008). News of the proposed deal sent Yahoo stocks soaring pre-market, ahead of trading.

Among the numbers at stake is a US$40 billion a year online advertising market, of which Yahoo currently commands just 9 percent, compared to rival Google’s mammoth 75 percent. In Europe and UK, Google almost monopolizes the market with an 80 percent share, with Yahoo having to share the rest with smaller operators.

If the deal goes through, it will come down to just Microsoft and Google, head to head, analysts say. Analysts say the odds of the Microsoft takeover being successful are at least 80 percent, if not more.

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