When Microsoft almost bought Yahoo for $45 billion!

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: US telecom giant Verizon Communications has agreed to buy the once internet king Yahoo for a 'meagre' USD 4.8 billion putting the company's 20 year reign as an independent entity to an end.

The deal, expected to be completed by early 2017, will integrate Yahoo's with Verizon's recent acquisition, AOL.

And while the USD 4.8 billion is seen as a meagre amount considering that Yahoo was once valued above USD 100 billion, did you know that Microsoft made bids to buy it for USD 45 billion in 2008?

According to report, in early part of 2008, Microsoft had proposed to Yahoo’s Board Of Directors that Microsoft acquire all Yahoo shares for $31, which is currently estimated to be worth $44.6 billion.

According to the report, Yahoo shareholders would get either cash or Microsoft shares (0.9509 of shares per 1 Yahoo share), though the entire deal couldn’t involve more than half payment overall in cash ($22.3 billion).

Even as recently as March 2016, there were reports that executives of Microsoft were in talks with potential Yahoo investors about contributing to financing to buy the troubled Internet company.

And while the official deal of Microsoft and Yahoo never happened (now that Verizon had bought Yahoo already), the US tech giant announced it was buying professional social networking site LinkedIn at $196 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $26.2 billion.

The Microsoft-LinkedIn deal is expected to close this calendar year and is subject to approval by LinkedIn’s shareholders, the satisfaction of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions