It looks like after a week or two spent contemplating a go-it-alone future Microsoft has reconsidered life with Yahoo. The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft has returned to the table and "proposed a complex new deal...that would involve collaboration between their online advertising businesses but would not involve a full takeover," (or, what one might refer to as the Woody Allen solution.)

No word on how this might affect Carl Icahn's proxy attempts to "shove aside" the Yahoo board or Yahoo's attempts to create a partnership with Google. According to the Times Microsoft's new approach could be viewed as "opportunistic" since a "Yahoo-Google partnership, which is likely to face antitrust scrutiny, could make Yahoo a less desirable partner or takeover candidate for Microsoft." Two's a collaboration, three's a crowd...or something like that.