Internet question hangs over Microsoft

REDMOND, Wash., May 5 (UPI) -- Microsoft Corp.'s decision to walk away from a pursuit of Yahoo! Inc. leaves the Redmond, Wash., company with a basic gap in its future, analysts said Monday.

The software giant is still on solid ground, analysts said. But the high-tech future belongs to the Internet, economists told The New York Times.

"The future of mass-market computing is not the personal computer," Timothy Bresnahan, an economist at Stanford University told the Times.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer's record "will be defined by how he manages this tremendous Internet transformation over the next few years," Forrester Research CEO George Colony told the newspaper.

How much is that future worth was given a pragmatic answer over the weekend.

Before talks broke down, Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang held out for $37 a share for the company, while Ballmer would only go as far as $33 per share, sources said. The company's share price Friday closed at $27.65.