May 2, 2008 8:17 AM PDT

Yahoo shares jump as Microsoft decision awaits

Posted by Dawn Kawamoto

Update: Friday, May 2, at 1:57 p.m. PDT

Yahoo closed the day with a sizable 6.92 percent gain to finish up at $28.67 per share. And in after-hours trading, it continued its ride, gaining an additional 1.12 percent to reach $28.99 a share.

Reports Friday that Yahoo and Microsoft finally entered into serious merger talks gave the Internet search pioneer a huge lift in its share price.

Microsoft, meanwhile, wasn't as lucky--falling 0.54 percent to $29.24 a share. The software giant dipped even further by 0.24 percent in after-hours trading.

Yahoo investors, you may want to cool your heels.

If Microsoft acts like a number of any other corporate America titans, chances are it's not likely to announce any "big" market-moving news until after the bell closes--at the earliest.

Public companies tend to roll out their huge news either before or after the markets open. And Microsoft falls into that corporate titan category.

In the meantime, Yahoo is up a respectable 4.35 percent in Friday morning trading at $27.98 per share, while Microsoft has been bouncing back and forth between positive and negative territory this morning. Microsoft's stock is currently down 0.34 percent at $29.30 a share.

Adding a little background to their share performance this morning, over the last 24 hours, reports have surfaced that Microsoft is leaning toward a "hostile" tender offer for Yahoo, while the Internet company could announce a search ad deal with Microsoft's archrival Google next week.

The pitch this week has become more fevered after Microsoft's ultimatum for Yahoo to respond by Saturday came and went and Microsoft said it anticipated making an announcement this week on its next course of action. Well, this week is almost over.