Yahoo After Facebook Again?

By now
the
story of how Yahoo came close but then lost the chance to buy Facebook for
$1 billion last year is a famous Silicon Valley tale. But is a sequel in the
works? Kara Swisher over at All Things Digital

says yes. Yahoo is seriously considering an investment in the company.

But wait! Wasn’t it Microsoft that was considering a purchase? Yep, and
Microsoft May Buy 5%
Stake In Facebook and
Microsoft Dilemma:
Facebook Or Yahoo (Or AOL)? have some background from us on that. But while
Microsoft might be interested, Facebook might be thinking otherwise, says Kara:

But a $15 billion valuation Facebook is insisting on is a high wall to
climb for Yahoo, and even is tough for the cash-rich Microsoft, whose deal
this is to lose.

Will it lose it though? It can’t have helped that

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently dissed Facebook publicly, or that
Facebook’s staff is uneasy about becoming too close to the software giant or
that its and Microsoft’s goals might be different.

Perhaps Microsoft will let Yahoo win a Facebook deal, then save its cash to
buy Yahoo and get the stake anyway. :)

Meanwhile, Om Malik

has news that Facebook’s traffic took a dip, so perhaps the bubble has
popped! Well, you can never make such judgments from a single month’s change,
and several are commenting on his post that the return to school might be an
explanation. Marketing Pilgrim also

points out that the same September dip happened last year, and Facebook came
right back up.