After a three-month battle, Microsoft on Saturday gave up on its attempt to acquire Yahoo.

The AP reports that the decision to abandon what was sure to become a hostile takeover battle came on Saturday when Yahoo co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo met with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and its online services chief Kevin Johnson.

Ballmer wrote an open letter to Yang on Saturday expressing thanks for Yahoo's willingness to listen to Microsoft's acquisition proposal. Ballmer also expressed his disappointment that the two weren't able to come to an agreement along with his acknowledgement that "it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders."

Click continued to read the full text of Ballmer's letter and Yahoo's response.

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On their own, mobile Web sites might not be drawing a whole lot of traffic, but, according to a new Nielsen report, they're proving successful at extending brand reach.

Numbers from Nielsen's TotalWeb measurement service show that mobile Web sites on average extend the reach of a leading Web site by 13%, says a MediaWeek article on the report.

TotalWeb tracks the number of visitors to a digital property across the various platforms, such as the Internet and mobile. The research found that weather and entertainment sites benefit the most from their mobile counterparts, garnering an average 22% extended reach.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft and Yahoo are talking on Friday in an attempt to come up with "a last-ditch friendly deal," before Microsoft decides whether or not to go forward with a hostile bid for the company. Citing sources familiar with the situation, the Journal says that Microsoft, Yahoo and their respective advisors have held informal talks throughout the week, but have been unable to agree on the basics of a takeover deal, particularly how much Microsoft should pay to acquire Yahoo.

Web surfers who spend their days at Starbucks will start noticing a difference in the coffee chain's Wi-Fi service, as it begins the nationwide rollout of AT&T Wi-Fi. The two announced back in February that AT&T would be replacing T-Mobile as Starbucks' wireless Internet partner.

Also, qualifying AT&T broadband customers will have free Wi-Fi access at some 7,000 company-owned Starbucks locations.

And, of course, iPhone and iPod touch owners have free wireless access to iTunes from participating Starbucks stores as well.

Back in the old days, say a decade ago, all these nifty tools were cropping up that let anyone build a professional-looking Web site. This week, a company called Mobilemo launched the beta of its service that does the same thing for mobile sites.

According to IntoMobile, Mobilemo provides tools for creating interactive sites that include polls, forms, comments, guestbooks and even file sharing. The platform automatically formats the site for viewing on a mobile phone. There's also an emulator so you can see how the site will look before making it "live."

Since it's in beta, the service is free.

MediaPost reports that The Associated Press is expected to announce today the selection of Verve Wireless to provide the technology for the AP Mobile News Network, an advertising-supported, multimedia news service tailored to cell phones:

"Debuting later this quarter, the network will provide mobile users with a single point of access to local, national and international news. It's the first product released by AP's Digital Cooperative, an initiative designed to find new digital outlets for the news and information."

The report said that the network will include local, national and international news as well as vertical content from the AP, such as sports, entertainment and business news.

The Museum of Modern Art announced Monday that it has installed a museum-wide Wi-Fi network so that visitors can access a mobile Web site on handheld devices with HTML browsers, CNET News reports. The mobile site lets visitors download and listen to audio podcast tours and commentary, in eight languages—plus versions for the visually impaired, children, and teenagers.

The article notes that this is especially desirable for iPhone and iPod Touch users due to their built-in WiFi, large browser screens, and integrated iPod functionality. But we see no reason why other WiFi enabled devices couldn't also take advantage of the new site.

Additionally, the article said, MoMA has put its library of audio and video programming into podcast format for Apple's iTunes Store's iTunes U education section: "current and past audio programs, content from panels and lectures, and video clips from exhibit installations and artist interviews." There are also new interactive kiosks sprinkled around the museum floor with artist bios and event listings.

(Image credit: MoMA/Olafur Eliasson)

The US market for mobile media and entertainment services will more than double from $3.1 billion last year to $6.6 billion in 2012, says a Cellular-news story on a recent survey from Analysys. The market researcher doesn't include messaging, browsing or data charges in its media and entertainment figures.

Other factoids and trends from the Analysys "Mobile Media and Entertainment in the US: forecasts 2007-2012" report detailing the expected growth include:

-Over the next few years we'll see better mobile Web browsing and easier access to off-deck content.

-More content will be available to more consumers, largely due to greater adoption of next-gen network and device adoption.

-Carriers and service providers will start to pay attention to improving the user experience. Consumer frustration with services that don't work as expected means slower growth.

-Cheaper and less complicated pricing for mobile content and applications as well as data plans will help with the growth that high data fees and confusing revenue-sharing models have inhibited.

In an interview with MocoNews, Vodafone UK content chief Mike Eaton talked about tearing down the walls around its Vodafone Live content service, its exclusive early release access to Madonna's upcoming release "Hard Candy," ad-funded content and on-deck v. off-deck offerings.

The leading carrier is against ad-funded games and using advertising instead of charging for most other content, but might consider the advertising model as an option for video. The jury is still out on the future of mobile broadcast TV, but Eaton does see "a strong future for streaming over 3G and HSDPA networks" and growing interest in longer-form, on-demand video.

You can read more of the interview here.

Mobile comics distributor and publisher GoComics has inked a deal to bring manga from Tokyopop to mobile users. Mobile Entertainment reports that a whole lot of Tokyopop content will be available through the new Tokyopop section on the GoComics mobile site and through the GoComics Mobile Manga + comics application.

Tokyopop's manga-based videos have been available on Verizon Wireless' V CAST video service since January.