NYT:

"In an interview, Mr. Diller said he had been trying to convince Microsoft to sell Expedia to him for nearly three years, although talks only became serious six months ago. One reason that Microsoft agreed, he said, is that USA Networks will link its various units to Microsoft's new initiatives such as Hailstorm, a huge database it is building of profiles of Internet users."

So Microsoft is out of Expedia but into USA Networks. It looks like Internet investement restructuring time in Redmond, since they recently got out of RadioShack.com and merged MoneyCentral with CNBC. Let's see what happens with Carpoint and HomeAdvisor.

I wonder how new SVP for corporate development and strategy Richard Emerson is involved in these deals, and how investments that lost their value (leading to a quarter without earnings, but that was foretold) influence these decisions. Anyway, they're probably in their strongest acquisition position ever, if you look at the cast they have at hand and the value of their stock relative to the market overall. They might sort through what they got into in the past, however I expect other aggressive investments.