Microsoft courting Yahoo.

Microsoft made a $44bn acquisition offer for the search engine on February 1st. As a result of the dip in Microsoft’s stock price, the value of the offer is now valued to $41bn.

It is believed that Yahoo’s board of directors met on Friday to discuss the proposal. According to reports in The Wall Street Journal the takeover was discussed alongside a counter-offer from Yahoo.

The board have important decisions to made regarding the takeover itself as well as the sale of their advertising business to Google.

The nature of Microsoft’s offer has attracted much attention, with many analysts muttering ‘hostile takeover’.

Microsoft have made their position clear as indicated by the statement made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmers: “depending on the nature of your response, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal”.

Speculation is rife that Yahoo will look to Goggle rather than Microsoft in order to preserve the company.

Although either result could raise ‘anti-trust concerns’. In September Microsoft alerted the US monopoly authorities of their fears to block Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick for $3bn.

The battle for Yahoo is sure to pose a similar problem if Microsoft get their way.