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Microsoft’s offer of $44.6 Billion for Yahoo boggles the mind and soul.  MicroHoo?  Kicking the “WTF"s around the Gadgetell newsroom, we all are scratching our heads over it.  Has Microsoft just offered to buy a sinking Titanic?  For what: deck chairs and movie rights?

Yahoo’s stock over that last year reads like a flying bird who suddenly decides to take a nap: a pretty steady decline.  I am all for the buy-low/sell-high mantra of Wall Street, but this position assumes Yahoo will climb again.  What has Yahoo got that us casual observers are missing in figuring that rise isn’t going to happen?

Well, Yahoo lays claim to the most visited property on the web.  Cool.  Flickr sure is fun.  But Yahoo isn’t capitalizing on these properties the way Google has. Microsoft must have been in the audience at CES’s keynote as Yahoo laid out their future plans.  Maybe Microsoft can turn that bus around but a MicroHoo is trying to catch up with a Google train that left the station years ago.

Is Microsoft just feeling left out of the online advertising game and will buy anyone whose name doesn’t rhyme with Doogle?  Is this an all or nothing proposition for Microsoft?  $5 says Google is chuckling right now, feeling smug that others are trying to figure out how to still be relevant as they steamroll along.  Not that Google’s stock has been doing cartwheels lately either, but the train keeps rolling.

One thing is certain, the Microsoft - Google fight card is sizing up to be a fantastic bout.  Anyone think otherwise?

Read Analysts Viewpoint:  [National Post]