Bill and the team at Microsoft must be asking themselves, what will it cost to dominate Google? Their strategy to take over Yahoo! in order to rival Google may be flawed, but it is a strong move nonetheless.

According to various news organizations on the Internet, it was reported today that Yahoo! had rejected Microsoft’s original bid of approximately $31/share which was made last week. According to a BBC article, there are rumors that Yahoo! would be unlikely to accept anything less than $40/share, a 109% premium of what Yahoo! stock was trading for the day before the offer was made.

We will see where this all leads – This is like buying a house, I’m sure Microsoft will counter and Yahoo! will reconsider, if the government does not step in, we may see a deal firmed up in the next 4 to 6 weeks (that is a total guess – but how long can these things take, really?)

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZTO7zSF-gY[/video]Mark from 45n5 is thinking about rebranding his site. He is asking for ideas in this post called, surprisingly enough, “Rebranding 45n5”

Head on over there and give him some good ideas. My comment on his thread was this:

@Mark – Here is the thing my $.02 get away from the describing thing… and make sure that your tag has a call to action.

Or, use a clever take on a pop culture saying from either the 70s 80s or 90s, for example:
“Ladies & Gentlemen, Marketing Scams Have Left The Building”
“Gag Me With An eBook”
“Free Your Mind and The Marketing Will Follow”
“Damnit Mark(substituted for Jim), I’m A Marketer, Not A Miracle Worker!”
“Taurens Rule! eBooks Don’t”

Whatever… obviously you come up with your own thing, but I would stay away from a “newspaper” sounding title. But, that is just my opinion – Remember, I have never been accused of being the smartest stick in the drawer – so you may want to think long and hard before you listen to me *grins* Hey! How about that one?
“45n5 – Not The Sharpest Marketing Stick In The Drawer – But Getting There!”

Ah well – good luck

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!