14 DAY TRIAL // With a market that has the potential to explode to no less than $80 billion at stake by 2010, neither Microsoft nor Google are backing down as far as Yahoo is concerned. In the first day of February 2008, Microsoft has made a $44.6 billion acquisition proposal for Yahoo. On the heels of the bid, Google came out and criticized the move as detrimental for the world wide web due to the past monopolistic practices of the Redmond company. The Mountain View search engine giant has not shifted from this position since that time. Google Chief Executive Officer, Eric Schmidt, came out gunning for Microsoft, in an effort to increase the negative sentiments around the potential takeover of Yahoo by the Redmond company.
"We would be concerned by any kind of acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft," Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said according to Reuters. "We would hope that anything they did would be consistent with the openness of the Internet, but I doubt it would be. We are concerned that there are things Microsoft could do that would be bad for the Internet."
On the other hand, Microsoft has also lashed out at Google accusing the search giant of doing everything in its power in order to maintain its monopoly of the search engine and online advertising markets. So far, Yahoo has rejected Microsoft's offer arguing that it undervalues the company. Still, the past week Microsoft and Yahoo top executives met to carry out informal talks about the takeover. The Redmond company's representatives simply unveiled their vision of how the two companies would be combined, reported the Wall Street Journal. Yahoo's answer still remains "no." Present at MIX08, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer pointed out that Yahoo would accelerate Microsoft's race for Google, and that the offer is still valid.
"I think we have worked really hard to make it clear that we have real commitment, real aspirations, and real tenacity about being a very serious player in the world of search and advertising. Advertising on the Internet is a big thing, and will be the next super big thing. There's no question about that. Search in some senses is, let's call it, the killer application of advertising, at least today and for the foreseeable future it is the killer application for online advertising. And despite the fact that you could say we are not where we'd like to be, and that we probably could have gotten a little bit going a little sooner, particularly on search and search-related advertising, we are very committed, we've got a great team, doing great things, driving forward really hard, and yet we've got a long way to go. And Yahoo seems to be a way to accelerate that because of the critical mass that's required to really compete," Ballmer stated.