may the force be with you

According to multiple sources close to the matter, Microsoft has considered buying eBay and merging it with its MSN portal - a deal that would give MSN and eBay considerable clout to take on Google.

Sources indicate that the talks, while still active, have cooled somewhat in the last two weeks as executives considered antitrust issues.

It is unclear what the full impact of yesterday's advertising and search alliance between Yahoo! and eBay will be for talks between MSN and eBay.

One source close to the matter suggested the Yahoo-eBay tie-up would not stop Microsoft from pursuing the online auctioneer.

Last year Microsoft was close to a deal with Time Warner that would have combined America Online and MSN. But Microsoft eventually lost out to Google.

The potential deal was considered important for MSN, as it would have resulted in AOL switching from Google's search technology to MSN's technology.

MSN is focused on expanding its search engine, which lags behind Google and Yahoo! Google eventually inked a deal with AOL, which included a broad online advertising partnership and an extension of the lucrative search deal. Google also invested $1 billion for a 5 percent stake in AOL.

But Microsoft had been in talks with AOL over a much broader deal, and at times the two companies had considered merging AOL and MSN in to a 50-50 joint venture.

But once the AOL deal fell apart, Microsoft turned to both Yahoo! and eBay for possible tie-ups that would help it compete with Google.

Sources said that talks with eBay were put on Microsoft's front-burner only recently, while the Yahoo! talks simmered.

One source said Microsoft boss Bill Gates came to the conclusion that Yahoo! was more a content company than a tech company. This source said Gates has no interest in owning a content company.

source:http://www.nypost.com/business/64226.htm