Microsoft offers $44.6B US in cash and stock for Yahoo

Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion US in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.'s
dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.

The surprise offer of $31 US per share, made late Thursday and announced Friday, seizes on Yahoo's weakness while Microsoft tries to muscle up in a high-stakes battle with Google likely to define the technology landscape for years to come.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, shown here at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, announced job cuts of 1,000 employees earlier this week.Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, shown here at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, announced job cuts of 1,000 employees earlier this week.
(Associated Press/Paul Sakuma)

In a statement Friday, Yahoo said it will "carefully and promptly" study Microsoft's bid.

With its profits steadily sliding, Yahoo's stock slipped to a four-year low earlier this week and a new management team has been trying to steer a turnaround but sees more turbulence through 2008.

The announcement lifted Yahoo's share price by more than 47 per cent, while Google fell eight per cent, dragged down by a fourth-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street expectations.