FACTBOX: Facts about Yahoo Corp

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp dropped its offer for Yahoo Inc after the Web company refused to budge on price even after the software giant raised its bid by $5 billion to about $47.5 billion.

The following are some key facts about Yahoo:

* 1994: David Filo and Jerry Yang, Doctoral candidates in electrical engineering at Stanford University, found Yahoo in a campus trailer in February as a way to keep track of their personal interests on the Internet. The site starts out as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web."

* The name is an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," but Filo and Yang insist they selected the name because they liked the general definition of a yahoo -- rude, unsophisticated and uncouth.

* 1994: Yahoo celebrated its first million-hit day that fall, translating to almost 100 thousand unique visitors.

* 1995: In March, Filo and Yang incorporate the business and meet with dozens of Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Sequoia Capital, whose most successful investments included Apple Computer, Atari, Oracle and Cisco Systems, agreed to fund Yahoo in April with an initial investment of nearly $2 million.

* 1995: Company secures second round of funding in the fall from investors Reuters Ltd and Softbank. Launches a highly successful IPO in April 1996 with 49 employees.

* 2001: Laid low by the tech crash, Yahoo in May brought in Terry Semel, a Hollywood deal-maker, when the company was at its nadir. Yahoo rebounded under his leadership, but 2006 -- a year expected by many to be Yahoo's best -- turned out dismally. The company's brand-advertising growth fell and Yahoo lost share of search-related advertising to Google.

* 2002: Yahoo acquires Inktomi, which many believed had the second-best search technology on the planet. In mid-2003, Semel paid $1.4 billion for the search-driven ad pioneer.