Microsoft may buy Yahoo and AOL if the latter two merge

I'm really curious to see what happens with this. Obviously, Microsoft wants to match (and eventually outdo) Google in the advertising market, hence their desperate attempts to swallow Yahoo.

Unfortunately, I don't actually think an acquisition like this will pan out for anyone -- neither Microsoft, nor the customers. Mind you, my commentary is purely armchair speculation, but I really can't see how this will put Microsoft on any positive track. Without a doubt, after attaining Yahoo/AOL, everything will receive some sort of (unnecessary) overhaul to better integrate it with their business. This could, in turn, anger a hell of a lot of users of services that Yahoo provides. As well, I can see AOL disappearing into MSN, and Yahoo being refocused and shrunk to merely a marketing sector of Microsoft. Everything else will either be discarded, sold off, or overhauled on a massive scale.

Perhaps I'm completely wrong about everything, but I don't like the direction this is going. Also, this is all very speculative to begin with, since it relies on a very significant sequence of events.

Wow, it's just going to be one giant clusterfuck.

It'd be nice to have one official client for the three IM services each offer.

...thus cementing their fate.