Microsoft bought Hotmail for about $400 million during the internet boom to enhance its online presence in 1997. If you go back in history and evaluate their investments into and purchases of other content companies to round out their internet offerings, it is not pretty - unless you like blackholes. Spending $240 million to invest in Facebook at a valuation of $15 billion is steep. $6 billion for aQuantive was pretty steep. And yet $44.6 billion for Yahoo is the current question. After yesterday’s comScore data on Google ad clicks, I have to wonder “what is Microsoft buying?” If you believe that the comScore data is indicative of future and prolonged economic weakness, then Microsoft is paying way too much to get into a business that is declining.