You've probably already heard it elsewhere, but I'd just like to say on a personal and selfish perspective that I'm glad Microsoft has given up their pursuit to buy out Yahoo!.

I'm neither a Microsoft nor a Yahoo! fan, but I do use some of each of their products and in particular I didn't want to see what Microsoft would have done with properties like Flickr and MyBlogLog.

Truth be told, I was a bit baffled by the whole thing, Microsoft could not have dreamed that they'd meet with anything but a wave of bad press from trying to fold Yahoo! via acquisition (after wrapping in what they'd want to keep, namely the advertising space). And obviously they were mistaken thinking that they'd be met with open arms by a company that operates much differently than their own.

As many people have been pointing out, Microsoft should have set their sights on AOL instead.