Every now and then, a rumored deal actually sounds smart and strategic. Most of Yahoo's deals are like that: Yahoo's purchases of Upcoming.org, Del.icio.us, and Flickr make sense, and the only question is why the bought properties aren't already tied into the front page.

So this rumor about Yahoo courting the social music startup last.fm is so unbubbly that you hardly deserve to hear it. What's cute is that no one told last.fm about Yahoo's thriftiness before they wasted time negotiating.

I heard it that Yahoo was looking to buy last.fm last week but dropped the deal. Wasn't interested in spending more than $30M apparently, so when talks reached $40M, things collapsed.

Know of another recent broken-up engagement? Tell tips@valleywag.com.

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