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The US Congress Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing next week to
scrutinize Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar bid to acquire Yahoo in
order to take on Internet goliath Google.
Leading members of the committee scheduled a
February 8 hearing after Microsoft announced Friday it is
courting California-based Yahoo with a $44.6-B offer.
The committee’s Antitrust and Competitive
Policy task force will hold the hearing to give the idea of a
Microsoft-Yahoo merger “careful examination.”
Yahoo has yet to say whether it will accept the
offer, but analysts believe it is too good a deal for the struggling
Internet veteran to refuse and that US regulators are unlikely to
find grounds to stop it.
The deal could reshape the landscape for high
technology by combining Microsoft and one of the leading brands on
the Internet.
The move comes as Yahoo is losing ground rapidly
in the Internet space to Google, a search leader which has cashed in
on the market for online advertising.
Yahoo would offer Microsoft a search engine to
compete with Google’s; a popular web portal for e-mail, shopping
and news, as well as one of the most recognized brands among online
users.
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