Well, someone had to bring it up eventually. Just about every other big name in the industry has been said to be in talks to strike a deal to save Yahoo from the clutches of Microsoft.

No, there's nothing to suggest that Apple wants to buy Yahoo. No secret whispers from connected parties, no flattering blog posts by executives, no public buyout offer.

Still, just for fun, let's examine what could happen if Apple were to add its name to Yahoo's ever-growing list of suitors.

15 Feb 2008

There is, possibly, some reason for Apple to have an interest in Yahoo (at least as much as News Corp and AOL would have.)

For one, there's .Mac. Apple has been pushing the web service to Mac users for years now with limited success. An acquisition with Yahoo would instantly give them a foothold in the web services market and open up a whole new audience of both Mac and PC .Mac/Yahoo users.

There's also the advertising field. Apple loves to get into new markets, so long as they know that they can make money out of it. This was proven with the iTunes store. Advertising is a lucrative market, and Apple is just about the only company that could make the purchase without incurring a huge anti-trust headache.

There's also the possibility to tie advertising into other products. Perhaps an ad-funded free iTunes web service a-la Pandora.

A pipe dream, perhaps, but it makes just as much sense as a buyout by AOL or News Corp, doesn't it?