Long in talk, previously spurned, Microsoft finally swallows hard and offers to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion dollars in a deal that not only is rich (in terms of dollars and sense), but may help Yahoo! in its most desperate time and its rapidly sinking fortunes amid a spooked but increasingly dominant Google.

Pundits say regulators are bound to give the deal a go, and antitrust concerns all but nonexistent given how Google controls the search space, which is where the action really is being able to serve all those contextual ads that is its bread and butter.

Even with the combined company, Yahoo! and Microsoft properties will still account for less than half of Google's market share.

It's a good marriage, but as one of the many comments arising said so succinctly-- "it's a good shotgun marriage... with Google holding the shotgun."

More from Yahoo! News, natch.