Microsoft has finally agreed to raise its bid above $31 per share to take over Yahoo. A person on condition of being anonymous has said that Microsoft has raised its offer beyond the original value $44.6 billion. The New York Times has reported that the giant software company has raised its offer by several dollars and many analysts believe that Microsoft can afford to pay up to $35 per share. However the representatives of Yahoo and Microsoft refused to comment on the issue.

 

Earlier Yahoo had declined Microsoft's offer citing undervaluation as the major reason for not accepting Microsoft's offer. Microsoft had said before that if the deal is not confirmed by April 26, 2008 then it would start a legal battle to throw out the board members of Yahoo. Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer had advocated that the original offer was fair enough as Yahoo's profit has declined in the past couple of years. Now that  the deadline has passed Ballmer has agreed to raise the bid.

 

Earlier this week Microsoft's board of directors met repeatedly and they even considered raising the bid to $33 per share. It is crystal clear that if Microsoft and Yahoo join hands then it will be a defining moment as more than 500 million people world wide use their services. Many analysts defied that Microsoft can give up the deal as Yahoo is still one of the most prestigious online firms in the world. It is also believed that Google has played an important role in raising Microsoft's bid. According to the reports Yahoo is closing on a long term deal with Google which would allow the search engine to sell its ads on Yahoo.