Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Microsoft has a good chance of making a hash out of buying Yahoo. Assuming it wins control of the internet company - and it is hard to see it failing to do so unless regulators intervene - the management challenge will be huge.

Yet Microsoft has to try. The offensive arguments are clear. The software giant has missed the internet growth wave surfed by its rival Google, and to a lesser extent Yahoo. Buying the latter would give it a chance of tapping into the huge, relatively new and still fast-expanding internet advertising market.