According to New York Times Microsoft Corp. is in talks with Rupert Murdoch' News Corp, publishers of 'The Wall Street Journal' about a joint bid towards the acquisition of Yahoo!. As of now, the two corporations still need to reach an agreement, but some sources have stated that the talks are extremely serious in nature. If this deal goes through, it will combine three of the Internet's biggest giants: News Corp's MySpace, Microsoft's MSN and Yahoo!.

Yahoo! Inc. rejected software giant Microsoft's three week deadline to accept a $44.6 billion takeover bid, keeping the prospect of a higher bid wide open. Roy Bostock (chairman of Yahoo's board) said, "We continue to believe that your proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders."

Microsoft has recently opened it's ContentAds Publisher Program to the public in general. The form for the sign-up is available at http://advertising.microsoft.com/publisher.

This new act by Microsoft will enable a user :

• To be informed about latest developments.
• Will receive invitations for participation in focus groups and feedback sessions.
• Could be considered for participation in an upcoming Pilot Program.

In 2006, Google, Microsoft Live Search and Yahoo! came together and extented their joint support for the Sitemaps protocol. So now furthering this team play, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! have announced the Cross-host submission for Sitemaps.

Reuters reported on Monday that Microsoft Corp would test a new way to measure the effectiveness of Internet advertising in a challenge to an industry standard that has helped the likes of Web search leader Google Inc and Yahoo Inc. In this regard, Microsoft's "Engagement Mapping" is due to begin in beta form on March 1.

Complaints are appearing at two different forums about the search engine crawlers from Microsoft. Reportedly, at WebmasterWorld , MSRbot, Microsoft's research bot is being said to crawl pages that don't even exist.

An e-mail sent by Kevin Johnson, president of the Microsoft Platforms & Services Division to provide employees of the Platforms & Services Division with an update on the proposal to combine with Yahoo, clearly indicates, how seriously is Microsoft surging ahead with the merger.

"I want to provide all employees in the Platforms & Services Division with an update on our February 1 proposal to combine with Yahoo!, and answer a few common questions that have been asked," said Kevin. "As we’ve discussed, the online advertising industry is growing rapidly and is expected to be an $80B industry by 2010."

Last Friday Microsoft Corp suggested that it had no plans to make major lay-offs if it succeeded in buying Yahoo Inc, rather there would be plenty of employee opportunities throughout the company, reports Reuters. It sure tickles the mind about the coming Microsoft and Yahoo merger.

Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's platforms and services division, said in an e-mail to employees in his unit that the company would dedicate "significant rewards and compensation" to retain Yahoo and Microsoft employees.

Two new severance plans to shield employees, is the way Yahoo has adopted now to protect its staff if Microsoft’s unsolicited takeover bid is successful. The announcement came through its filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday.

The new plans filed can be availed by all full-time employees eligible for severance pay equal to base salary for four months to 24 months, based on the employee’s job level. Furthermore health and dental coverage is also included.

Just as many expected that Microsoft's passion for Yahoo would lead it to appreciate it offer, the Redmond giant's stance seems to be just as tough as Yahoo's bold refusal to the proposal.

Rather than increasing the bid even by a cent and justifying the price of $31 per share as fair, the Redmond giant's Chairman, Mr. Bill Gates has reiterated his company's stand on the issue. "We sent them a letter and said we think that's a fair offer. There's nothing that's gone on other than us stating that we think it's a fair offer," said Mr. Gates On Monday. "They should take a hard look at it."