We haven’t really raised the issue here but this was big news everywhere else and it should be. A week ago, Microsoft decided to buyout web-pioneer Yahoo! for $44.6 billion. And recently, reports state that Yahoo!’s board decided to reject Billy and his boys’ unsolicited bid.

The bid, apparently places Yahoo!’s shares at just $31 each and thus hugely undervaluing Yahoo!’s stock. While Yahoo! has had its share of troubles, they believe that Microsoft is just trying to take advantage of the situation.

I was totally hoping for this outcome as this would escalate the search engine wars to something like Coke versus Pepsi. A duopoly is one thing that the Web needs today. But we’ll just have to see how bad Microsoft wants Yahoo! Yahoo! wouldn’t consider any offer below $40 per share and that would mean Microsoft would need to dish out $12B more in total.

Source: Wall Street Journal