Will this Microsoft Yahoo bid never end?

Grudun answered one year ago …

It will only end when Microsoft is successful and buys Yahoo!(but then we will still be hearing about the slow integration for years) or when Yahoo! succeeds enough that its institutional share holders are happy with their returns, reducing the pressure to increase their returns by selling the company.

Microsoft will not let this go because the big 2 on the internet are Google and Yahoo! with MSN being the best of the also rans. Microsoft knows that it has to take on Google before it starts creating internet based applications that take significant market share from their primary product(MS office). Also the internet based applications and search are the primary growth areas right now and it is somewhere Microsoft cannot penetrate without a huge investment of time and money. And time is not something that Microsoft has with its internal politics slowing its efforts and the great speed of Google's innovations. Microsoft's other problem is that it doesn't have the cash it needs to buy Yahoo! without borrowing for the first time in its history which is why we are seeing relucatance on Microsofts part to increase the offer which could clinch the deal immediately(right now Yahoo! wants $35 and Microsoft is offering about $30 just going to $32 would push a lot of shareholders into Microsofts camp).