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It seems that all the specialists consider that the deal between Yahoo! and Microsoft failed. Including Eric Schmidt: “I’m happy to be crowned winner,” Mr Schmidt said, before quickly adding: “But as we’ve learned in the election cycle, it goes back and forth.”

“The failure of the Microsoft/Yahoo merger eliminates the biggest short-term threat” to Google’s unrivalled position on the web, says David Yoffie, a professor at Harvard Business School. For now, its momentum “seems unstoppable”.

Michael Cusumano, a management professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, describes Google’s now-unchallenged dominance even more bluntly: “They’re sitting on a goldmine.”

As I am not a specialist, I can suppose that Microsoft lost a battle, but not the war. I will try a prediction, that the next battle will be between Yahoo's board and its shareholders. The billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn accused the company’s board for turning down a $47.5 billion takeover offer from Microsoft. He intend to initiate a replacing of Yahoo’s board with 10 new directors that would try to negotiate a merger with Microsoft. “It is clear to me that the board of directors of Yahoo has acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders and Microsoft.” Carl C. Icahn had already purchased about 59 million shares of Yahoo, and he would seek clearance from the Federal Trade Commission to acquire a stake of about $2.5 billion in Yahoo (about 6%)

Carl Celian Icahn

Carl Celian Icahn (born February 16, 1936) is an American billionaire financier, corporate raider, and private equity investor. His net worth is US$14 billion as of 2008, making him the 46th richest man in the world.

Roy Bostock, the Chairman of the Board for Yahoo! Inc., said that “we do not believe it is in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders to allow you and your hand-picked nominees to take control of Yahoo for the express purpose of trying to force a sale of Yahoo to a formerly interested buyer who has publicly stated that they have moved on.” He would like a partnership with Google.

It seems that several Yahoo's investors expressed their option to resume the negotiations with Microsoft.

So, what will become Yahoo! in the near future, Microhoo or Yahoogle? It's still hard to predict.

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