In all seriousness (I don't own MicroSoft stock), I think MicroSoft is trying to avoid the same error the railroads made. That is, railroads thought they were in the business of running trains. They ignored other developments in transportation until it was too late. My guess is that MicroSoft is simply staying with its commitment to information, as opposed to simply software development.
Yahoo may not be the best, but then, neither was Word (Word still isn't). But look what has happened to its main competitor, WordPerfect. MS owns a significant stake in Google and if it controls Yahoo, who knows what will happen. John