The second largest Internet search company said "No way!" to the software giant’s merger offer, despite Microsoft’s move to sweeten the courtship by adding billion to its original purchase bid.

This put an end to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s dream of merging his company’s Internet resources with Yahoo’s world famous online brands. Such an arrangement would have helped the Redmond company, a giant in desktop software but virtually a dwarf on the Internet, to take a first meaningful step in its bid to catch up with the acknowledged online advertising champion, Google.

Now, industry observers and investors are expecting Yahoo’s share price to resume its nose-dive trajectory. Microsoft, for its part, intends to look for other partners and allies to help prop up its Internet campaign.

Unpowered Idle Mode

Most IT companies are doing their part to protect the environment. Lead-free manufacturing processes, recycling programs for old gadgets and devices, the list goes on for quite a while. Seems like our favorite electronics vendors have their hearts in the right place and truly are friends of dear Mother Earth.

Now comes a monitor from Fujitsu Siemens Computers, which, if it would perform as touted by its manufacturer, would be one of the most environment-friendly information display systems ever. The monitor consumes no electricity while in idle mode.

Korean Kids’ Top IT Wish

According to a survey conducted by Yahoo’s South Korean unit, the mobile phone is the most wished-for gift among the country’s children. About 37 percent of the children surveyed by the Web site chose mobile phones over other gift ideas. Nintendo video game systems came in second, getting the nod of 30 percent of the respondents. MP3 players are at the third spot with nine percent.

In the Philippines, I suppose the children are wishing mostly for a kilogram of rice.

Executive Movements at OLPC

Charles Kane has been appointed as president and chief operating officer of the One Laptop Per Child Project, the nonprofit group seeking to provide millions of poor children in poor countries with a low-cost portable computer each. The move is seen to signify the nonprofit organization’s efforts to recover lost ground after the departure of several senior executives.

Earlier, differences in opinion have forced some leaders of the organization to leave and start their own businesses. Walter Bender, for example, quit as president of software and content following the group’s decision to load Windows XP on the XO laptop.

Executive defections, however, are the least of the organization’s worries. Several commercial IT vendors have launched their own low-cost computer projects, each competing with the XO laptop. At first glance, this may seem like a case of the more the merrier.

A closer look, however, reveals that any delay and setback in OLPC’s mission means a longer wait for poor children for a chance to be connected to the IT superhighway. After all, while the MIT-based group’s campaign might be a bit too quixotic and un-commercial to succeed, it is what is truly needed.

Suffer the children?

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.