Microsoft has ended its acquisition talks with behavioral targeting firm Claria, ClickZ News has learned from a source close to the discussions. Another Microsoft source later confirmed that report.
A Microsoft staffer, who asked not to be identified, characterized the end of the talks as driven by concerns about a PR fallout that could follow a Claria purchase. That company has, in the past, been associated with spyware.
Good.
Update: Oh, and will someone please find whoever it was at Microsoft who thought this was a good idea and lock them in a room until they realize what a stupid, stupid, stupid idea this was?
Someone could even read them this quote:
I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid so stupid that it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Singularity stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid. You emit more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid. Perhaps this is some primordial fragment from the original big bang of stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know.
Just stupid.
Ed Bott 
Ed, I think that it would be more beneficial to your overall wellbeing if you didn’t hold your real feelings so tightly in check.
By the way, I am happy that you wrote rather than spoke, out loud, this well reasoned and thorough commentary. The saliva spray alone would have injured small children.