First there was a Microsoft executive that outlined the plans for the company to improve its online search market share from about 10 percent to about 30 percent. Then came a former Wall Street analyst who said that that wasn’t going to happen on its own and that a buyout is in the brewing. And unlike the biblical way of things going, then there was no light. Just gossip and speculation.

Even though they have invested immensely in its Online Services Division (OSD) it only goes up by about 25 percent every year as opposed to the previous. And the 6 billion USD spent on acquiring digital services agency aQuantive did not pay back with a really noticeable boost in revenue. The OSD is currently loosing about 1 billion $ a year.

According to site analytics Compete, the online search market share in September was of about 9.2 percent for Microsoft, 19 percent for Yahoo and 67 percent for Google. Adding the first two figures would result in a number close to that predicted by the Microsoft executive, wouldn’t they? That’s where the rumors started off.