Microsoft? Deal Or No Deal?

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.