Microsoft Makes a Open Offer to Yahoo

Microsoft has targeted the slumping Internet icon Yahoo
with an hostile takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.'s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.
With profits steadily on decline, 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 difficult times through 2008.

The announcement sent Yahoo's share price buzzing up 60% in premarket trading, while Google fell 8%, weighted down by a fourth-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street expectations.

In a letter to Yahoo's board of directors, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer indicated that the world's largest software maker is determined to bring the two companies together.