Well, it finally happened. Microsoft, sensing the weakness of lucky-too-be-#2 Yahoo! has pulled out its checkbook and offered $44.6 billion for the intarwebs most trafficked portal.

Rumors of such a move have been around for quite a while. In this post from May 2006, I mentioned a discussion I had with Forrester analyst about Microsoft picking up a stake in Yahoo!. Funnily enough, the analyst laughed about the possibility of that happening (she actually clarified her stance in a blog post where she called the possibility of such a move as “hogwash” sighting the strength of Yahoo! and Microsoft. Sometimes I really wonder why people even listen to Forrester’s online marketing analysts. Yes, I am ranting.)

Needless to say, if the transaction goes through there will be some serious implications for affiliate marketers. I would hope that Microsoft would have the good sense to kill its AdCenter platform and switch everyone over to Yahoo!’s Panama (and while they are at it they should trash the Live algorithm and use Yahoo!’s instead).

More importantly, I would hope that a Microsoft and Yahoo! would find a way to get their search traffic numbers up so that search marketers would have a reason to spend more time optimizing for and bidding with Microsoft/Yahoo!.

In the end, I’m hoping this goes through. I think Google needs some real competition, and Microsoft and Yahoo! have proven that they are no match for the big G when they are working alone.

What do you think? As an online marketer do you think Microsoft buying Yahoo! is a good thing or a bad thing? Leave a comment!

[For a more in-depth analysis from the search marketing field, check out Danny's post.]