Google has Google Earth, Google Moon, Google Mars and the Google Lunar X Prize.  While Google is very busy exploring our planet and beyond, Microsoft is still exploring the Internet with its recent release of Internet Explorer 7.  Microsoft needs its own leap beyond, hence its bid for Yahoo! and Internet glory.  This is no more than playing catch-up.  If Microsoft truly wants to leapfrog Google at its own game of owning and operating the Universe, it must do what it does best; buy somebody else's capabilities.  Hence NASA, which excels at robotic exploration even as it struggles with its manned exploration programs.

Think about it.  Google is well on its way to developing brand recognition for the Moon and Mars, domains that once belonged to NASA.  It's too late for Microsoft in our own solar system, so if Microsoft buys NASA it can own Voyager 1 and Pioneer 10, the furthest human-constructed objects from Earth.  Microsoft can buy Yahoo! for $44 Billion and play in Google's backyard, or for a mere $18 Billion it can buy NASA and brand the Galaxy beyond our Solar System.  But Microsoft better hurry... I hear that Google will soon announce Google Wormhole and Google Andromeda Galaxy.