The Zone

If you haven't heard about this, you might want to now!

Microsoft, the maker of the recent Windows 6 (Vista) Operating System, wants to buy its online rival Yahoo, for a staggering USD$50billion!

This isn't the first time Microsoft has made an offer to Yahoo - they're refused before - but Microsoft is hoping the higher USD$50billion is going to change the yodelling online giant's mind.

In the online space where Google buys YouTube and Newscorp buys MySpace, the best method to eliminate your enemy is to just buy them over.

With Yahoo Messenger 8 being able to use MSN Messenger (or Windows Live Messenger since version 8) user names, the battle between the top IM (Instant Messengers) just got tougher for Microsoft.  Since Microsoft isn't the kind to allow you to use Windows Live Messenger for your Yahoo IM user name, people just might switch over to Yahoo's IM to use both Yahoo and Microsoft IM user names.

Taking over Yahoo would also increase Microsoft's Web search market share by 38%, putting them right behind Google - Microsoft's ultimate rival.

Yahoo's current value is around USD$30 to 40billion - so that's a cool USD$10billion extra to just say yes to Microsoft.  Will Yahoo accept it?

Source: The New York Post

Reference: Search Engine Ranking