Before the bell 5-4-07: MSFT, YHOO, GOOG, SBUX, MOT

Main market news here.
The New York Post reports that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) asked Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) to re-enter formal talks about buying the web portal company. The deal could easily be worth around $50 billion. Shares of Microsoft are down a little in pre-market trading, but shares of Yahoo! are near $33, rising nearly 17% in pre-market trading.

No doubt Microsoft is feeling the pressure from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) with its commanding lead in search market share and online ad empire, not to mention its constant encroachment on Microsoft's software business with its offering of web-based software. But how would this affect Google? Does Google need to worry from such a move? For now, it's in pretty good position as the integration of the operations will take a while and could prove to be a difficult task despite the many synergies and different complementing services and technologies.

British music group EMI Group Plc also said it had received a number of takeover approaches, after a report in the Financial Times named One Equity private equity firm as one of the suitors. EMI shares are rising some 8% in London. Recently EMI made a deal with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) to offer music downloads without copy protection.

Carl Icahn responded today with another letter to Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) shareholders.

Some analysts views on Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) earnings. Same-store-sales rose 4%, a pace that is "rather soft."