According to Bloomberg News, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer said the world's biggest software maker doesn't plan to raise its $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo! Inc.

"We are offering a lot of money," Ballmer said yesterday at a Microsoft conference in Milan. "If Yahoo's shareholders like it, that's great. We are prepared to go forward without a merger with Yahoo." Microsoft has offered $31 a share in cash and stock, which is somewhere between $41 and $44 billion, depending on the day.

Microsoft originally made the bid in January in an effort to catch Google in online search and advertising, the article said. Yahoo's board rejected the offer as being too low, and since then we've been subjected to a less-than-riveting back-and-forth between the two companies. Microsoft still plans to take the offer to shareholders directly and oust Yahoo's board in the process.

(Image credit: NYT)