We almost missed this blurb from Terry Semel's interview with Fortune Magazine, published Monday. The Yahoo CEO was asked:

With the recent deal between Yahoo and eBay (Charts), the two companies have gotten very chummy. Why not go all the way and merge?

I think what we're doing right now is going to benefit both companies an awful lot.

Semel doesn't want to jump the gun here, but everyone knows that Yahoo and eBay are working on a merger. (In fact, everyone, including more than one major industry exec, keeps tipping us to this.) The question isn't "will they," it's not even "when" — it's "Will eBay CEO Meg Whitman make a better tennis opponent than Rupert Murdoch?"

Yahoo vs. Google, round two [Fortune]

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