Microsoft is considering making another bid for internet firm Yahoo more than three years after its previous attempt to buy the company failed.
The software giant, which owns the Bing search engine and hotmail, joins several other media groups hoping to take over the ailing web portal.
It comes just a month after former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was fired following a dismal performance on the stock market.
Having lost almost a fifth of its value in the last six months, the firm is now valued at around $18billion – less than half of the $44billion Microsoft offered to buy it in February 2008.
That bid failed because Yahoo founder Jerry Yang believed the offer undervalued the company.
Sources said Microsoft may seek a partner to go after Yahoo, which is searching for potential buyers.
No decision has been made and a bid might not materialize as there are internal divisions at the software company on whether it should pursue Yahoo again, a high-ranking executive said.
Microsoft joins a host of other companies looking at Yahoo.
They include Rupert Murdoch News Corp empire, as well as buyout shops Providence Equity Partners, Hellman & Friedman and Silver Lake Partners.
Web rival AOL, which this year purchased the Huffington Post online news site, is also considering a bid.
They, like Microsoft, would be interested in reducing the number of web competitors in their bid to assault Google’s Number 1 status.
Perhaps the biggest draw for investors, though, are the $13billion worth of shares of Chinese web giant Alibaba that Yahoo owns.
The Oriental giant, which also runs a Japanese affiliate, is seen as a rising star. Stripped of Alibaba, Yahoo is worth only $5billion.
The Yahoo board will also be keen to draw a line under what has been a dismal year, with the saga of firing Miss Bartz an especially ugly affair.
She also said the board was ‘trying to show that they’re not the doofuses that they are.’
It has since emerged that she could lose $10million for violating a non-disparagement clause with those comments.
However, according to Fortune, her contract with Yahoo contained a clause barring her from criticizing the internet company.
This has the potential to draw a legal battle, further shadowing Yahoo.
{Daily Mail/Matzav.com Newscenter}
