BoomTown is back from a seasick cruise vacation in the wilds of Alaska–official sightings: lots of icebergs, 16 glaciers, a passel of jellyfish and starfish, four lumberjacks, three orcas, two seals, one otter, no moose or bears and, yep, one Republican Vice Presidential candidate’s lovely house in Juneau–just in time for school.

Or, more precisely, a little schooling for some of the tech companies that I cover in a mildly obsessive-compulsive manner.

All of them, I predict, are in for a news-filled fall.

Thus, here is a rundown of what to expect and also what some of those companies need to focus on over the next several months.

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Once burnt, twice shy?

I suppose that’s the reason Microsoft is not loaded for bear and headed back down to Sunnyvale to make another play for Yahoo right now.

Not even after Jerry Yang orchestrated activist Carl Icahn’s defenestration by inviting him on the board at Yahoo, where he will be 100 percent silenced.

Not even after the stranger-than-fiction shareholder miscount (oops–we thought no meant yes!).

Not even after Yahoo stock’s consistent flirting-with-the-teens price.

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One thing is absolutely true: It is Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and only Ballmer who knows for sure whom he is most interested in to take over the dicey job of head of the software giant’s long-suffering online services business.

But there is a movement afoot among its developers and other execs at Microsoft to push for Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, who replaced Founder Bill Gates in the job just over two years ago.

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BoomTown was all busy trying to think of execs to replace Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, as pressure mounts on him to right the troubled Internet company.

But now, Yang’s position feels safer than ever and it’s his nemesis–Microsoft–that needs a new leader for its long-stumbling online services business.

Microsoft is already been cracking, according to sources, with a wish list of internal and external candidates that CEO Steve Ballmer is now considering.

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BoomTown is flatly fascinated by the rather incredible memo Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer penned to his troops yesterday, with news of the reorganization of its massive Platforms and Services Division and the departure of its president, Kevin Johnson.

In it, in a very rare public airing of its less-clean laundry, Ballmer actually named Microsoft’s two major rivals, Apple and Google, in a somewhat positive light, while still vowing to best them.

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Oh, BoomTown loves a delicious irony.

Kevin Johnson–who yesterday announced he was leaving his job as president of Platform and Services Division at Microsoft to become CEO of the network infrastructure company, Juniper Networks–was the point person on the software giant’s failed bid to acquire Yahoo.

Unfortunately, Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang rejected him and the rest of the Microsoft team over and over again in a very public fashion.

But who will be Johnson’s most immediate Internet neighbor be when he takes up residence, presumably at Juniper’s Sunnyvale, California, headquarters at 1194 North Mathilda Ave.?

Um, Yang!

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Here is the full memo Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent out to the troops about the big changes in its organization, including the departure of Platform and Services Division President Kevin Johnson, in which he addresses Apple, Yahoo, Google and more.

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Kevin Johnson, the point person for Microsoft’s failed bid to buy Yahoo, is leaving the company to run Juniper Networks.

As the president of its Platform and Services Division, the smooth Johnson has been trying, without much success, to beef up the software giant’s efforts in the Web space, especially in the online advertising arena.

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Could Ross Levinsohn and Jon Miller reinvent Yahoo? What about OpenTable’s Jeff Jordan? Or various and sundry Google or Microsoft execs?

It could happen.

That specific scenario of putting someone like the two former Internet execs in charge of the troubled Web giant is one of the many being bandied about, as Yahoo shares tumble and the company heads toward a potentially ugly annual meeting everyone involved desperately wants to avoid.

In fact, Yahoo’s board and major investors are talking today about various options for the company, including Yahoo’s receptivity to a sweetened deal with Microsoft and also other ways to pull the asset-rich company out of its stock doldrums.

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Microsoft does not have a secret plot to buy Yahoo.

Maybe Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer should be hovering in the wings, like a digital Simon Legree ready to pounce again on poor Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang.

But he’s not.

And still the hopeful, the suspicious and, most of all, the beaten down Yahoo shareholders continue to jump on any utterance from the software giant, even woefully mistranslating interviews with its top execs, to make it so.

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As Yahoo continues to be in limbo, pressure is sure to mount heavily on its CEO and Co-Founder Jerry Yang, and it is not a stretch to imagine he will not remain in the top job at the troubled company for the long term.

So who would be good to replace him?

I have six candidates I like, so here’s my short list (and remember, the last time I made one for the job of the No. 2 leader for Facebook, its current COO Sheryl Sandberg was high on my list).

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So what will Microsoft’s next quarry be?

Facebook? AOL? A series of small Web 2.0 stars like Digg (probably too late, as Google is already first in line there again), Spot Runner and others?

That is, if there will be one after the Yahoo takeover debacle or if the software giant somehow screws up the courage and, despite the constant rejection, goes back again to try to scoop up Yahoo.

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Here is the full text of the letter Microsoft’s Kevin Johnson, President of the Platforms and Services division, sent to employees of the software giant.

It tracks with BoomTown’s earlier report on the offer Microsoft made to Yahoo, which Yahoo turned down in favor of a deal with Google.

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Tonight, The Wall Street Journal and Reuters had nearly identical stories, noting that Microsoft was interested in buying Yahoo’s search business, which–oh, we bloggers are so touchy when we don’t get even a smidgen of credit, aren’t we?–BoomTown speculated was just what the software giant was interested in yesterday.

To be fair, both Reuters’ and The Journal’s reports make such a plan by Microsoft even more definitive and both have interesting new details, which are intriguing.

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Just prior to Microsoft’s annual advertising conference advance08, Kevin Johnson, President of the company’s Platforms & Services Division, sent the following strategy update to PSD employees.

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