Soon after rumors about secret talks between Yahoo and Microsoft have emerged, the shares of the internet company rose sharply. Early Friday there were reports about Microsoft’s intentions to buy Yahoo for as much as 50 billion dollars.

In morning trading, shares of Yahoo rose 19 per cent to 33.44 dollars. Wall Street Journal noted that Microsoft and Yahoo had previous talks about a takeover about a year ago. Quoting sources familiar with the matter, WSJ said that it seems like the talks were renewed.

With the acquisition of Yahoo, Microsoft hopes to counter growing competition from Google. Recently, Google announced it will acquire DoubleClick, an Web advertising company. Google’s announcement has come under heavy criticism from Yahoo and Microsoft.

Microsoft’s own effort into Internet search and Web advertising market is lagging behind Yahoo and Google. Still, MSN Search is credited with 11% market share. If Microsoft will buy Yahoo, then the Redmond company may triple its share of the US search market to 38.4 per cent.

According to the data released by ComScore, Google now owns 48.3 per cent from search market.