Microsoft¬†has made an unsolicited $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo! to challenge Google’s dominance in Internet search services and advertising.

According to Bloomberg.com, Microsoft’s $31/share offer is 62 percent more than Yahoo’s closing stock price yesterday. In the months leading up to Microsoft’s offer, Yahoo!’s stock has been declining in value, dropping 18 percent this year on the Nasdaq.

Microsoft’s shares have dropped about 40% since Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer took over from Bill Gates in 2000.

The New York Times likens the prospective merger/buyout to “building a spaceship out of spare parts,” (the old Soviet Soyuz and US Skylab, in their humorous example), using old bits and pieces to craft an intricate, complicated machine while hurtling through space, with a high likelihood of catastrophic failure.

Shar van Buskirk at Forrester thinks that this merger would yield much deeper customer data, allowing for “laser target[ing]” of online advertising, a boon for business.

One has to wonder whether two giant technology companies merging will ultimately be good or bad for the end-user, the small businessperson, the student, the blogger.¬† Perhaps they’ll give Google a run for their money.¬† But in a world where more choices = more competition = better prices and wider range of alternatives, one can’t help but feel uneasy about two of the biggest tech companies joining forces to do battle with a third behemoth.

As Twitter founder Evan Williams said (on Twitter), “Has putting two behemoths together ever, in the history of corporations, resulted in greatness?”

Indeed.