Microsoft! touted! to! buy! Yahoo!

Microsoft is mulling the purchase of Yahoo! according to published reports that pushed up the share price of the declining portal site by about ten per cent in Wednesday's trading. Reuters quotes a high-ranking Redmond executive as saying that the company is considering a bid for Yahoo!, possibly in association with another …

[jonoMT]

Why???

But if Bing already powers Yahoo's search then it does have 30% of the business (despite whatever revenue split there is). So why? Yahoo! as a brand is 1998.

[kain preacher]

Oh some screwed up, or should I say Yanged up .

[Anonymous Coward]

Hope MS makes its mind up quickly...

...as I have to decide soon whether to renew my Flickr Pro account!

The removal van is waiting patiently by the back door... ;-)

[Tim Bates]

Totally agree - I think I've got quite some time left, but I only renewed last time because MS said they've abandoned they attempts to buy.

Not just about the money going to MS - it's also about the fact they'll promptly retire the entire current system in favor of a "far better" one running on WIndows Server and using Silverlight where ever they can find a place for it.

[Tom 7]

Thats one less email account to worry about.

NT

[I understand now]

benefit?

Hm, not sure I see the benefit - other than market share which seems to be stagnant or reducing.

Yahoo!'s brand has always felt somewhat dated to me, but that might be the geocities effect.

Cant see it being strategic either. Yahoo's sinking slowly and will bleed its user base to other companies. Buying it will just mean you bleed instead!

[Josco]

What about the Email?

I have a Yahoo email account and I consider it to be far better than my Gmail account. I do hope nothing happens to it when (if) MicroSoft take over.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bouncing! Ballmer! Buys! Basketcase!

but for less than $40bn, presumably

this will confirm MS as the home of the also-ran.

[Anonymous Coward]

The® Register® still® putting® an® exclamation® mark® after® every® word® in® a® headline® about® Yahoo!®. Still® makes® my® sides® split® after® all® this® time®.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wasn't this going to happen years ago?

[xperroni]

"Microsoft is mulling the purchase of Yahoo..."

What, again?

Damnit people, just jump into the sack already and get it over with. This whole mating dance is getting seriously long in the tooth.

[Anonymous Coward]

Erk

Does this mean Yahoo will become as rubbish as MS?

[Nun of Thee Above]

Yahoo!? What's a Yahoo!?

Oh, right... I remember: Used them for a while back in the mid '90s when they got their start in a trailer parked on a back lot of Stanford University... Then one day they decided to start using pop-up ads and I switched over to Google.

[Charles Manning]

Thankfully! Another! Yawho! article!

I was running low on exclamation marks.