Would someone please tell Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to stop screwing around? We get that this on-and-off-again Microsoft-Yahoo deal (if that's what you want to call at it at this point) is tricky and requires a lot of back and forth, finesse, and all that, but it needs to end. Seriously. We're so jaded at this point that every we time we hear a new news report that Yahoo and Microsoft are maybe talking we take it with a tablespoon full of salt.

So, that said, the latest from inside the scrap is that Microsoft is trying to acquire Yahoo's search business, and is looking for partners to jump on board, the Wall Street Journal reports this morning. Word is that Ballmer's been wooing Rupert Mudorch's News Corporation (which owns MySpace and the Wall Street Journal) and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, which the e-gossip rags say has probably been an unsuccessful courtship as yet. The evidence? While Ballmer and Yahoo board chair Roy Bostock had a meeting scheduled on Monday, it was cancelled at the last minute by Microsoft, which apparently indicates they hadn't nailed down a partner—yet.

Here's my question to you though, readers: do you even care? All this speculation, chatter, and rumormongering doesn't amount to much given that Microsoft and Yahoo haven't actually done anything recently other than snipe at one another. Sure if a deal actually goes down, we'll cover it. But unless something really wild happens—like Ballmer and Bostock getting in a wrestling match—consider us a [vaguely] disinterested party.

(Neat graphic via Valleywag)