Microsoft? Deal Or No Deal?

Good thing we were too slow to post the news yesterday that Microsoft was thinking about buying Yahoo -- because when we woke up today, we found out that the deal is now supposedly off again.

As of yesterday, people were abuzz that Microsoft had reopened merger talks with Yahoo over the past few months in the wake of the Google-DoubleClick purchase and the news that Google is now the number one website on the Internet. However, after word of that broke (raising Yahoo stock by 10% and dropping Microsoft's by 1%), "anonymous sources" told the WSJ (subscription required) that the talks were dead again. It's so Howie Mandel and The Banker cutting to a commercial break! Deal? Or NO DEAL??

All this back and forth has, of course, just increased the buzz, with people now wondering if maybe this is all just a ploy to distract people while they talk -- kind of like when J.Lo kept postponing her wedding to Ben Affleck. Then again, we all know how that turned out.