Microsoft and Icahn: Who's Doing Whom?

There are some diametrically opposed takes on the alliance between Microsoft and Carl Icahn. One is that Icahn is shamelessly using Microsoft to his own ends. The other is that Steve Ballmer is using Icahn "to weaken Yahoo! for takeover." I doubt that anyone really knows what's going on (though the New York Observer gets clever graphic of the day award for its puppet master image). I think the point of media gossip is actually to have an excuse for screwing around on the Internet at work. Hey, it's all competitive research, right? Either that or all of this is stealth marketing for the new X-Files movie. Only alien abduction, mind control, and tinfoil hats explain this. At least, that's what I Want To Believe.

Moonbeam UFO via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.