The New York Post and Wall Street Journal both reported on Friday, May 04, 2007 that Microsoft and Yahoo are in the early discussion stages of a possible acquisition or merger. There have been reports of previous discussions about this same thing but to date, but no firm plans have been made. Originally, there was some speculation about a Microsoft/Yahoo deal about a year ago. Even with a combination of these two large companies, Google would still hold the market share of Internet searches. Last month, Google executed about 55 percent of online searches while Yahoo and MSN combined for only 32 percent. Many analysts believe that Microsoft is beginning to feel the pressure while Google continues to develop and expand their product line with Google Apps which offer some of the same abilities Microsoft Office currently provides. These products are currently web based and free from Google. Yahoo has experienced Google’s dominance more directly and has been in slow decline for years. The news of a possible acquisition accounted for a sharp increase in Yahoo’s stock raising it to a near 52 week high of $33.23 per share.

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