If you’re a journalist, you have to love Steve Ballmer. Something quotable always seems to be falling out of his mouth. In public, he is a mixture of loud-mouthed bully, bumbling reasonableness and calculating shark.

So which persona was responsible for his comment today at a Gartner technology symposium in Florida? According to a Bloomberg report, the Microsoft CEO said that a deal with Yahoo “may still make economic sense for shareholders of both companies,” though there are no talks going on at the moment. Read more

The latest internet earnings season has got off to a decidedly unappetising start.

eBay kicked it off today with two memorable firsts: the first-ever fall in the value of goods sold through its sites (which slipped by 1 per cent in the latest quarter) and a fourth-quarter financial forecast that predicts its first-ever revenue decline (yes, decline – and this is a company that was growing at 30 per cent this time last year.) Read more