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This deal will be huge if it goes ahead: Microsoft has reacted to Google's purchase of DoubleClick by stepping up talks with Yahoo about a possible acquisition/merger. Estimated pricetag for Yahoo? $50 billion.
Microsoft and Yahoo have spoken in the past, but Google has piled on the pressure with the DoubleClick deal and now Microsoft has asked Yahoo to re-enter talks about the acquisition, says the NYPost. The price estimate, meanwhile, comes from Wall Street analysts.
Where's the synergy? Yahoo has had much more success on the web than Microsoft, and Google increasingly looks to challenge Microsoft with online office apps. There's search, too: the two companies combined would command 27% of the search market against Google's 65%. And of course there's advertising, where Google is also dominant and Yahoo is building out Panama.