We've got what we need now, thank you very much, so all this Yahoo talk can cease. That's what Microsoft chief advertising strategist Yusuf Mehdi seems to be telling Wall Street. At a Goldman Sachs conference Wednesday, an analyst asked Mehdi, "Are there assets that Yahoo would bring to the table that would be helpful?" The answer: Yes, Yahoo has a great business. "But no, I think from where we are today, we think we have all of the pieces," Mehdi said.
The $6 billion piece is the recent aQuantive acquisition. But Mehdi also said there are "other small pieces that we're in the process of getting to." That would seem to make clear that Microsoft is neither done ratcheting up the advertising side nor is it happy with its less than satisfactory showing to date.