Bid Kicks Off Clash of the Internet Titans

Proposed Microsoft/Yahoo! merger signals showdown with Google

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 2, 2008 10:14 AM CST

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Bid Kicks Off Clash of the Internet Titans — A Times Square news ticker flashes a headline about Microsoft above a billboard for Yahoo! in New York in this Friday, May 4, 2007 file photo. Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. on Friday, Feb. 1, 2008, with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest... (Associated Press)

Analysts agree that Microsoft's bold $44.6-billion bid for Yahoo marks the start of a big push by Microsoft to challenge Google's Web dominance. The move is a dramatic change in tactics for Microsoft, which likes to build new businesses on its own, writes Steve Lohr in a New York Times analysis, and an admission of failure. "This just shows how worried Microsoft is by Google," an expert tells Lohr.

A merger could help Microsoft build a big enough presence online to compete head-on with Google for advertising, but the real MicroYahoo-Google showdown may not even happen over search, writes Chris Wilson in Slate. Yahoo is stronger as a portal than as a search engine, and as people start to do more tasks such as word processing and photo-album-building online, a 'Yacrosoft' colossus could be ideally placed to leap ahead of Google. (More Google stories.)

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