Microsoft to acquire Yahoo in the biggest acquisition in IT history! Full story over at Mashable

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.

Apparently the Yahoo stock is rising because of the buy out talk.

Shares of Yahoo Inc. surged more than 17% on Friday after reports that Microsoft may try to buy the Internet-search firm after being beaten to other deals by Google Inc. A Yahoo-Microsoft combo would make for a stronger foil to Google, the Internet search engine and advertising giant. Shares of Yahoo (YHOO) rallied sharply in early Friday action after the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft may want to buy the firm in what could be a $50 billion deal. Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) slipped more than 1%.

Yahoo teaming up with the Redmond giant would surely lead to a world class contextual advertising system to rival Adsense. International publishers have been at the mercy of Google’s Adsense as the Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) and MS Adcentre is still in US beta.

[Update] Forbes also has the story, good read.

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