The writing has been on the wall for quite some times, and last night Microsoft finally puts in a bid for Yahoo! after Y!’s poor Q4 performance. If that sounds like equity research, it is because I think that’s where this is coming from. Soothing Yahoo!’s annoyed shareholders. Both of them are hugh, but the list of overlapping services are very long and I can’t imagine how they would even start to untangle that mess, let alone make a synergy out of it. And the merger won’t mean much in terms of competition with Google.

If the deal does come through, and they can blend Yahoo!’s vision and web technology onto the desktop, it could be worthwhile. Otherwise, I can’t see how the likes of Yahoo!’s recent web 2.0 acquisition (Flickr, Upcoming, del.icio.us, blo.gs) can benefit under Microsoft’s umbrella. (What was the last successful web takeover by Microsoft? Anybody remember Teleo? Groove Networks?