I just saw this on Connected Internet and verified the story via the BBC newswire:

In a strategic move to dominate the search markets and what appears to be a bid to regain lagging internet surfer attention, Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 Billion - that is Billion with a capital B folks!

According to the BBC - the offer letter to the Board of Directors at Yahoo! was offering 62% more than the closing share price of Yahoo! on Thursday afternoon.

Yahoo confirmed that it has received an unsolicited offer and said that its board would evaluate the proposal, “carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo’s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.”

What this means for Google remains to be seen - below is a chart from Alexa which shows the overall Daily Reach of the three major search engine sites. Of course each company offers more than just a search at their sites, but, this is an interesting bid by Microsoft to say the least. I cannot imagine that the Yahoo! Board of Directors would turn down an offer at such a high value, but we will need to wait and see.

This will be fun to watch!