Well, it has gone and done it now. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has apparently initiated talks with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) again. All I can say is, HAVE IT NO PRIDE???

After Yahoo!'s management shrugged it off the last time it made an offer, Microsoft management should have undertaken an entirely different strategy which should have involved ramping up its own Internet advertising showboat and pinning Yahoo against the wall until it cried uncle and begged for just anyone to acquire it. Instead, MSFT went home, licked its wounds and now came back whining, "Please oh please, won't you marry me?" What kind of limp-wristed business strategy is that?!

The whole thing seems to be sired by Microsoft's bushel of sour grapes in regard to losing the DoubleClick bidding war to Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). My interpretation of Microsoft's subliminal message here is that it couldn't win the game so it's going to pay the crippled kid down the street to come play with it. The only problem here is that the crippled kid isn't all too interested in playing, and Microsoft doesn't even seem to realize that it's a cripple.