Originally Posted by aim

Word on the street is that Google's CEO Eric Schmidt called Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang and offered help to fend off Microsoft's offer. Two likely scenarios are this:

1. Yahoo "outsources" organic search + paid advertising to Google. This, analysts say, would raise Yahoo's revenues by as much as 25%. In return, Google gets access to Yahoo's actual "content" in an attempt to become more of a portal (rather than just a search engine).

2. Google also puts in a bid for Yahoo!, however lower than Microsoft's but more lucrative to Yahoo and its shareholders. Google lives to piss m$ off, and this would really get them going.

While a Microsoft takeover would be a great saga for tech news, I think that Yahoo staying independent and outsourcing search would be a dream come true for affiliates.