BoomTown’s week began onstage in front of thousands of chanting women. No, Kara wasn’t filling in for Oprah; she was doing something much cooler. She got snagged to moderate a panel entitled “Changing the World Through the Web” at Maria Shriver’s six-year-strong Women’s Conference. Kara’s panel included a group of VIPs from Facebook, Kiva, Blue State Digital–and the Twitterific Ashton Kutcher. With “Mission: Kutcher” accomplished, Kara followed up with the complicated world of MicroHoo and offered analysis on the still-pending search deal. Moral of the story: Commentators should give it time, and Carol Bartz should quit with the Jerry Yang jabs. BoomTown rounded out the week at TEDMED. The conference covered the scalpel’s edge of med tech. And yes, in case you were wondering, synthetic skin feels gross.

Digital Daily covered the real-time search war early in the week when Microsoft’s Bing search folks announced a nonexclusive deal with Twitter to feed on its data stream. The deal did put Bing out front for once, but no one knows if the new info source will turn into profits for either search group. In a post foreshadowing a grisly murder, John reported results from a ChangeWave research study that placed the iPhone within striking distance of overtaking the Blackberry from Research in Motion (RIMM) in the smart-phone market. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that grisly, but it’s Halloween. Digital Daily rounded out the week by adding the iPhone to the pantheon of cat, dragon, rat and rooster that occupies the rim of your Chinese restaurant placemat. Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone officially made it to China this week, though without its signature Wi-Fi, and at a much heftier price point.

Peter Kafka lives at the crossroads of media and tech, and that’s exactly where he was almost run down by the Windows 7 “Family Guy” episode. Microsoft (MSFT) apparently bailed out of the deal when it took a closer look at what was actually inside. From the “not so fast” files, Peter covered a report from Interpublic Group (IPG) noting that ad revenue isn’t quite as sunny as some have suggested. Grim economic times caught up to AllThingsD’s big brother late in the week when The Wall Street Journal closed its Boston bureau. The move resulted in nine job losses, despite significant resources being poured into the paper by parent News Corp. (NWS).

The leaves are changing color over at Personal Technology, and Walt sensed that chill in the air meant it was time for his annual fall computer-buying guide. Operating-system choice was a big discussion; but he also touched on the latest must-haves in the memory, graphics, processor and form-factor categories. With a cup of Earl Grey tea to fend off the autumn chill, Walt trudged out to Mossberg’s Mailbox this week and came back with a fistful of letters. He dutifully replied to a question about migrating Microsoft files to a Mac running windows, offered clarification on the Windows 7 upgrade process, and weighed in on the rumor of a pending Apple device below a laptop but above an iPhone.

Katie finished it all off with a deep dive on the two latest netbooks. The HP (HP) Mini 31 and the Nokia (NOK) Booklet 3G both offer high style compared with their competitors, and each boast much higher screen resolutions than previous models. Though she came down on the side of the Nokia, Katie remarked that neither option would disappoint.

Bundle up as you head out for tricking and treating, and learn from Weekend Update’s mistakes. Remember to check and make sure that scary face is actually a mask before you bring that new friend home.

Reports claim that Microsoft Live Search, once known as Windows Live Search and, prior to that as MSN Search, will henceforth be known as…

Bing.

Which is pretty much what we’ve expected all along. Just what form Bing will take is another matter entirely. Will it simply be Live Search updated and recast? Or will it involve something more? Like perhaps that long-rumored deal with Yahoo (YHOO) BoomTown’s been talking about? Or what if, ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley speculates, “Microsoft and Yahoo announce some kind of jointly-managed company that will trade ad sales for search engine placement. This ‘MicroHoo’ won’t be a merged Microsoft-Yahoo. Instead it will be some kind of ad/search entity.” What if, indeed. We may find out later this week.

UPDATE: Interesting. ZDNet’s Larry Dignan points to a report from Jeffries analyst Katherine Egbert that suggests Microsoft is indeed preparing for some sort of joint venture or acquisition. A quick excerpt:

“It’s also possible that Microsoft could debut a partnership or make an acquisition of some type that will bolster its online search presence. The software giant registered an LLC Corp. in Delaware last week, a move often made in advance of acquisitions or joint ventures. The registration gave rise to widespread speculation that Microsoft would acquire Citrix since the name of the LLC is somewhat similar to Microsoft’s code name for Citrix. While that’s possible, the timing of the registration and recent debt raise indicate that it might be more likely Microsoft uses the LLC to form a partnership that will boost the amount of traffic flowing through its search engine, perhaps through a partnership with Yahoo! or others.”

Huh. That said, there is one little caveat.

Other sources–“sources familiar with the matter”–tell the Post that Microsoft does in fact have a slate of 10 board candidates and two alternates locked and loaded and will pull the trigger on nominating them if it must.

Holy Shiite … what a story. Incidentally, sources with knowledge of both “the matter” and “the situation” tell us that the Post has got this one dead wrong–the first part of it, anyway.

“Yahoo has shown some willingness to have a conversation and talk,” a source familiar with the talks said yesterday.

And?

Microsoft taking over Yahoo–that conversation has never come up. [We discussed] search, and Microsoft co-owning some of our search. I will not sell a piece of search. It is like selling your right arm while keeping your left–it does not make any sense.”

–Former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, The New Yorker, May, 2006

• Read Microsoft’s letter to Yahoo
• View Microsoft’s presentation (PPT)
• Read Microsoft’s conference call transcript
• Listen to Microsoft’s conference call (.wma, 23 min 10 sec)

Google’s relentless success in both search and Internet advertising has finally pushed Microsoft over the edge. The software giant made an unsolicited $44.6 billion cash and stock bid for Yahoo this morning. The offer of $31 a share is a 62% premium over Yahoo’s closing stock price on Thursday.

“Microsoft’s consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a letter to Yahoo’s board of directors. “In late 2006 and early 2007, we jointly explored a broad range of ways in which our two companies might work together. These discussions were based on a vision that the online businesses of Microsoft and Yahoo should be aligned in some way to create a more effective competitor in the online marketplace. We discussed a number of alternatives ranging from commercial partnerships to a merger proposal, which you rejected. While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo that we are proposing.”

A compelling proposal and one that Yahoo said it will evaluate “carefully and promptly.”

Though not as promptly as Yahoo’s impatient investors, who proffered their evaluation within moments of market open today. Yahoo shares, which have long been sinking into the mud, spiked nearly 50% in morning trading. And they may soar higher still.

Some analysts believe Microsoft may have to raise its bid to close the deal. “The Yahoo offer could rise above $31 [a share],” Leland Westerfield, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a research note this morning. “The valuation amounts to 12 times projected core EBITDA for Yahoo, net of cash and equity assets from Yahoo Japan and Alibaba and GMarket that amount to ~$12 per Yahoo. The offer, presented as an open letter to [the] Yahoo Board, strikes us an effort to drive a wedge between Yahoo management and directors’ constituencies, who might favor a transaction and those who resist a takeover–and therefore it is our view that Microsoft would ultimately need to sweeten its initial offer price in order to prevail.”

If Microsoft is able to close the deal, it will gain control of an estimated 27% of the search advertising market. That still pales in comparison to the 65% controlled by Google, but it’s an improvement nonetheless. According to a quick analysis by the folks at Silicon Alley Insider, a combined Yahoo-Microsoft would have revenues of $13 billion and operating profits of $1.1 billion in 2009.

As Ballmer said during a conference call this morning, the deal is “the next major milestone in Microsoft’s transformation.”

And, perhaps, Yahoo’s as well. As Kara Swisher writes over at BoomTown, “… while it’s never over until it’s over, let me just say, for Yahoo, it’s over.”

And so a final question, then: Microhoo or Yacrosoft?

PREVIOUSLY:

• And Now Here’s Jerry Yang With the Weather …
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• Raise the Yangtanic!
• Decker Rearranges Chairs on Yangtanic
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