The announcement of Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo! may have come as a Friday morning surprise, but it is not altogether unexpected. Such a tie-up has been the subject of speculation over the past 18 months, ever since the companies discussed collaborating in late 2006.

Both companies need the sort of jolt a megamerger could provide, albeit for different reasons. Microsoft famously missed the advent of the Web and has long been playing catch-up with Web media companies that have created a $40 billion market for online advertising. Yahoo!, though one of the largest of those Web media companies, has been struggling to make headway against market-leadingGoogle.

Make no mistake; this deal will close. The $31 per share offer represents a 62% premium over Yahoo!’s market close Thursday. It was money that trumped all else in News Corp.’s bid last year for Dow Jones, and that will be the case here as well. Friday morning, Yahoo! opened at $28.70 a share, a clear vote of confidence by the markets that the purchase would go through.

& #8226;


Read the full Forbes.com story

.