Saturday, February 2, 2008, 12:50pm
Yahoo has been on the ropes for a long time.
Once the top dog of the internet, the company has been haemorrhaging users and money. With advertising income not anywhere near where it should be, Yahoo's share price is stuck in the doldrums.
Last June Yahoo's board chucked out chief executive Terry Semel and brought back co-founder Jerry Yang to recapture the firm's dominance - to little avail.
One word explains all of Yahoo's troubles: Google. While Yahoo invested in content to lure its audience, the search engine rival simply focused on delivering what users really wanted: good search results.
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For Microsoft, however, this is the deal that could break it.
Making the offer is an admission that Microsoft's management has been scared by the success of Google.
The bid is also an acknowledgement that its numerous attempts to become a dominant internet content provider have failed.