Ballmer makes a $44 billion play for Yahoo! It’s still early for me so I have to admit I don’t quite get it.

What does Yahoo! have to offer? I’m no analyst, but here’s what I think they have as leadership positions:

• Flickr
• Yahoo! Mail
• del.icio.us
• Yahoo.com
• Various other consumer outlets that combined have a huge reach

Is this all about getting more in front of consumers, and competiting with GOOG on ad revenue? If so I REALLY don’t get it. MSFT is a software company, or should be. I suppose that MSNBC et al prove that MSFT has had bigger ambitions for a while, but beware the Time Warner/AOL fiasco.

I will say one thing: this can only improve search, because MSFT’s search technologies just absolutely stink right now.

UPDATE: Live notes from today’s conference call can be found here (Thanks, Allan!)

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Tags: Microsoft, Yahoo, Acquisition