Microsoft Pursuing Deal To Buy Yahoo? Here Are Some Mergers We'd Really Like To SeeMicrosoft Pursuing Deal To Buy Yahoo? Here Are Some Mergers We'd Really Like To See

The Web is abuzz with the news that Microsoft has restarted acquisition talks with Yahoo. But if you're talking about mega-tech-mergers, I can think of a bunch of hook-ups which make a lot more sense.While Microsoft and Yahoo are innovative companies with a lot to be proud of, it seems clear that any potential deal isn't being driven from a position of strength. On the contrary, when it comes to search, Microsoft is undoubtedly tired of banging its head against a virtual wall trying to gain ground on Google. Steve Ballmer and crew probably feel that getting ahold of Yahoo will finally give Redmond the kind of momentum in search they've heretofore failed to capture.

At best, one can reasonably expect that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger would vault the former into a respectable search postion and stabilize the latter, which has been buffeted by a series of business missteps in the past year. But displace Google and become king of the search hill? Doubtful.

On the other hand, here are some envisioned deals, not all of which are offered in jest, which could seriously shake up their respective markets:

Apple Buys Sun. The world's most innovative personal computing company gains the some of the world's best software developers, plus captive source of microprocessors. Plus, see the iPhone support Javascript. See Mac OS X become open sourced. See Jonathan Schwartz and Steve Jobs do the industry's coolest good Web cop, bad Web cop routine. HP Buys Dell. No economies of scale, but you'd sure have one heck of a big company. Dell would get heavy duty engineering and lots of printers. HP would get to do a Compaq-type deal again, and get it right this time. Best Buy acquires Radio Shack. For consumers, the benefit is clear: Buy a wide-screen TV, get free batteries. And they don't even ask you for your phone number anymore. Texas Instruments Buys Texas Rangers They could name their ballfield "Texas Stadium" without the usual criticisms.