[Hampshire] Microsoft wants to purchase Yahoo

Microsoft has offered to buy the search engine company Yahoo for $44.6bn
in cash and shares.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/business/7222114.stm

"Ultimately this corporate marriage was forced by the rise of Google,
which has grown into a serious competitor for both Microsoft as a software
company and Yahoo as an internet portal," said Tim Weber, business editor
of the BBC News website.

"It is a shotgun marriage, but the person holding the shotgun is Google."