All Things Digital

Hopefully, we will find out this morning the 411 on the Microsoft’s (MSFT) latest parry in its attempted takeover of Yahoo (YHOO).

But, before that, let me get this straight: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer now wants to go hostile on Yahoo with a proxy fight.

Because earlier this week, he sent smoke signals that he was considering raising the price of his takeover bid for Yahoo.

And just before that, Ballmer was going to walk away from the deal. Except, before that when he was ready to lower his offer.

But don’t forget the friendly path Ballmer was also promising. Even though his initial unsolicited offer started off back in February as, well, hostile.

Calling Dr. Phil!

Perhaps the wacky TV shrink can merge together Ballmer’s multiple personalities into one, much the same way he tried to mend Britney Spears.

OK, that did not go so well. But it couldn’t be worse than the confusion of intentions from Microsoft here, including the latest one reported by The Wall Street Journal’s crack team today that Ballmer had now selected hostile as his choice.

Here is Ballmer’s money quote, the likes of which a Zen master could not interpret: “With the right circumstances it’ll happen. Without the right circumstances it won’t happen.”

What? That just about covers every option possible and then some. This may even require an Oprah intervention.

Here’s BoomTown advice, which we reiterate from yesterday’s post: Offer $33 to $35 a share as a best and final, take-it-or-leave-it offer. Set a 48-hour deadline for Yahoo to enter negotiations. After that, initiate a proxy fight.

This says a lot of things. It says Microsoft is generous (and will even bid against itself). It says it has had it waiting for Yahoo to dangle Google (GOOG) or AOL (TWX) as alternatives. It says definitively that Microsoft wants Yahoo and will fight for it.

Most importantly, it says enough is enough.

And while this may seem like it says a lot of things, it doesn’t seem–as so much of what Ballmer has been saying so far says–like the rant of someone in need of help.

Because, as it stands for Ballmer, that’s what it sounds like right now.

Ah, more pointless eye candy from BoomTown’s good friends at Facebook!

Not satisfied to just entertain the masses with inane Vampires and SuperPokes, the social-networking site unleashed Lexicon on users this week.

It’s kind of like Google Zeitgeist except… well, it is exactly the same concept, all part of Facebook’s admiration of Google (GOOG) things, like, for example, as many of its employees as it can entice away.

As Facebook’s Roddy Lindsay described it: “We thought it would be cool to show trends on the public and semi-public forums across Facebook (also known as Walls). Today we’re announcing the launch of Facebook Lexicon, a tool where you can see the buzz surrounding different words and phrases on Facebook Walls.”

But, as much as I hate a lot of these juvenile time-wasters online, I do like the very simple Lexicon very much, especially in its ability to compare up to five keywords or two-word phrases at once.

Thus, BoomTown is periodically going to post word comparisons here, always using Britney Spears as the control word, since she has been a perennial champ on Zeitgeist for a very long time.

So, today, it is presidential candidates–Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain.

As you can see, among users of Facebook, Britney holds up surprisingly well, even though she is going through a quieter, less-manic-head-shaving period of late.

(Click to make the images bigger)

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Here’s a snippet from Britney Spears’s upcoming cameo appearance on CBS’s (CBS) “How I Met Your Mother” sitcom next Monday, clips that are fast becoming among the most popular racing around the Web of late.

No longer a “popwreck,” as the TMZ (TWX) celebrity site calls her so lovingly, her first words on the show are: “Can we have sex and then go shopping?” BoomTown loves poetic irony.

Here’s another snippet:

What, oh what, can we say about the latest inane quote from yet another Hollywood mogul about Apple’s Steve Jobs and his hugely popular iTunes and iPod products.

The latest piece of hoo-ha comes from former Disney CEO Michael Eisner (pictured below), pointing a finger at Apple as the real villain in the ongoing strike between the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood entertainment behemoths

At fault? Steve Jobs, of course!

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