It's not the most recent news, as it's been dissected and commented by everyone else, but nonetheless an interesting topic.
From the MS fan base Hello, Google, can you spell hypocrisy? to the MS (particulary Ballmer) bashing A Defining Test for Ballmer, the most interesting ones were the internal ones Microsoft + Yahoo! = Microsoft - $44,600,000,000 ? and Microsoft and Yahoo! -- Stay on Target?, and Bruce Eckel's Should Microsoft Buy Yahoo?.
The internal perspective focus more on the restructuring, layoffs, overlapping of products and foresee the potential problems (culture, technological - spreading MS technology within Yahoo), and possible sinergies, defining the dominant reaction as: "talk to me in a year".
Bruce Eckel focus is on the acquisitions, and the merge failings when two big software/hardware companies try it. I can't really assess if it is truly that bad, but MS and Yahoo should really be on their toes to avoid the problems. Those that don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it (or something similar).
I really think it's impossible to predict the outcome of this. MS and Yahoo should take close attention to the details of the merge (cultural, tecnological, user base), and avoid imploding themselves.
Google should take attention as MS showed in the past, they can/will use any tactic they can to get back into the game. If MS can leverage their dominant position to spread Silverlight and get control over Web 2.0 content, Google will be in deep trouble. It's not like Google's monopoly generates user lock-in (as MS Windows and Office, and other MS tactics - IE), so they better watch it carefully as changing my search engine is just some clicks away...
So, in conclusion, I guess only time will tell what the outcome will be. Whoever does the fewest mistakes in this game, will take leadership. Although, for the stake of evolution, I hope that no true winner comes out of it, and competition becomes fiercer...
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