Microsoft’s mission to take over the Yahoo Inc Company can be better understood now as reports show a below the target profit and a small decrease in share prices.

Apparently, Microsoft’s core business, the globally known Windows, is beginning to slow down, bringing revenues in its client unit to $4 billion from last year’s $5.3 billion. One of the main issues is the slow adoption rate of Microsoft’s newest operating system, Vista, which presents some low-interest new features for the majority of users. The new interfaces need some time to get accustomed to and the incompatibility of Office 2007 documents also causes problems.

The business division was also below the target. The company’s developers and analysts expected revenues of at least $4.8 billion and the reports showed $4.7 billion.  

Microsoft notified Yahoo’s board of directors that a decision regarding the merger of the two must be reached within the next three weeks. If the announced deadline, which is tomorrow, will be crossed, Microsoft will make its offer available, most probably at a lower cost, to the Yahoo shareholders.

On February 11, Jerry Yang rejected Microsoft’s bid saying that it undervalues the company. Yahoo asked for a $12 billion raise in Microsoft’s offer, which has not happened so far. Rumors have it that Microsoft already turned to Bear Stearns Cos. Services in the Yahoo situation.

It is common knowledge that Yahoo has been searching for a backup option to Microsoft’s offer, discussing different partnership scenarios with Google, AOL and the News Corporation.