Fair? I'd say it's more than fair. So would the Microsoft shareholders, judging by the recent price slide. A 62 per cent premium on a declining web company - surely this is as good as it's going to get for Yahoo!.

Who here remembers Lycos? No, me either.

....And everything we do is fair and community-driven!

Overheard at a secret Microsoft meeting........

It needs to get back to it's roots get over this gluntenous pie in the sky non-existant so called invisible competition with google. Their business' overlap in the smallest of proportions.

The small print:

(Only once you have assassinated Jobs, tortured Woz until he tells us how they got that much so thin, persuaded the remaining fruity shareholders to sell off, bought many Microhoo shares and convinced 5 freinds to buy vista. Activation code: 123-aff-ill-iii-hate-52883)

Am I the only one who thinks that MS is just after the yahoo IM infrastructure?

If MS was to assimilate Yahoo, they will have another de-facto monopoly on the IM business, and google doesn't make a dent on IM advertising while in MSN Messenger it's all about the ads.

If the slide continues, Yahoo may have no choice: sell now reasonably quietly or sell later after a bloody stockholder revolt.

Your disrupting a bunch things in the vain hope of buying deeper into a business you have always regretted being in, most of your bad press has been IE related, your lackluster showings regarding your network and advertising aren't going to go away, and you're spending your money very foolishly angering your own shareholders, who can apparently read and know where the money is really coming from which is your core business which is sucking wind for no good reason other than inattention. Dear Bill stop it!