WebProNews

One could argue that Yahoo's not good at making friends; its recent interactions with Microsoft and absence from several "most trusted companies" lists (lists that named Google, mind you) represent decent evidence of this.  So now, Yahoo almost appears ready to just pay for pals as one exec expressed an interest in buying "social" firms. 

Indeed, Ari Balogh, who's both Executive Vice President of Products and Chief Technology Officer, said according to Reuters, "I can guarantee you there will be some acquisitions, and we will do some stuff in-house."  Which makes it sound like there's more of an emphasis on the first option than the second.

And although at this moment, Yahoo's stock is at about half the level of its 52-week high, it's still got a whopping market cap of $20.59 billion.

The main question is what, then, Yahoo might want to acquire.  MySpace and Facebook are obviously off the table.  Twitter didn't even choose to sell to the deeper-pocketed and more popular Google.  LinkedIn seems to be thinking about an IPO.

So we'll keep an ear open for any (plausible) whispers.  Carol Bartz, meanwhile, will want to be very careful that she doesn't go down a path leading to some disaster like Google's Lively.