Google Joins Forces With Yahoo!…?
Monday, February 4, 2008 20:09
Microsoft’s unsolicited offer to buy Yahoo apparently made an impression around the world. The answer from Google was immediate. Last Sunday Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, made a surprise call to Yahoo’s CEO, Jerry Yang, to offer help in order to fend off Microsoft’s hostile bid. Rumors speculate that if Yahoo accepts they may end up with Google buying or even merging with Yahoo.
Microsoft replied to Google’s move with a statement from their CEO Steve Ballmer who said “Google’s clearly got a dominant position. They’ve got about 75% of paid search worldwide”. This is really a move of desperation from Microsoft as they struggle to get back in the game of world (wide web) domination. This can be seen by the fact that Microsoft needs to borrow ~$20bn (£10bn) in cash to be able to back the $44.6bn (£22.65bn) bid to buy rival Yahoo!