Microsoft made an offer earlier this year to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion US dollars. Yahoo! declined shortly afterward, saying the offer was too low. Microsoft insisted that their offer was solid and said they might resort to a hostile takeover if Yahoo! declined and gave them until last Saturday to accept their offer.

Saturday passed with no word of a deal between Yahoo! and Microsoft. The question at this point is what Microsoft will do about it. Do they back off and wait to see of Yahoo! stock falls? Probably. Microsoft could start hostile action now, but that would be a long and expensive process. They could also return with a higher bid offer, but that seems unlikely.

Microsoft's stock took a plunge shortly after their first offer, and it is down again as of this writing.