Murdoch 'not interested' in buying net firm Yahoo

MEDIA tycoon Rupert Murdoch has quashed rumours that he is planning a bidding war against computer giant Microsoft to take over internet search engine Yahoo.

The mogul, whose News Corporation group had been seen as a potential suitor for Yahoo, ruled out making any takeover bid despite Microsoft tabling a 22.65 billion offer for the internet firm.

Mr Murdoch said: "We are definitely not going to make a bid for Yahoo. We are just not interested at this stage."

News Corporation was listed alongside other media companies such as Time Warner, AT&T and Comcast as potential bidders for Yahoo, although Microsoft is the only firm to have made an offer for the search engine.

Microsoft said its bid, which is currently being considered by Yahoo's board, was aimed at creating a "strong number two competitor" to search engine industry leader Google.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said that a combined Microsoft and Yahoo would better rival Google, and therefore create stronger competition in the market for online advertising. He said: "Google's clearly got a dominant position. They've got about 75 per cent of paid search worldwide."

However, Google has said it finds Microsoft's unsolicited approach for Yahoo "troubling", and has called for it to be investigated by regulators.

In a blog, Google said that a takeover could unfairly limit the ability of internet users to freely access competitors' e-mail and instant messaging services.