Jack Flack had a hunch Microsoft's news release announcing the Yahoo! deal would offer a rich parsing opportunity, and he was not disappointed.

While the opening paragraph provides straight-forward details about the terms of the transaction, the rest of the statement requires translation. Jack Flack obliges.

Microsoft: "We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft. "We believe our combination will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders and better choice and innovation to our customers and industry partners."

JF Translation: Yahoo! is troubled, but is still the best available alternative for trying to stay relevant online. We haven't been big fans of "choice" in the past. But we we've matured over the years, and now see the wisdom is the concept.

Microsoft: "Our lives, our businesses, and even our society have been progressively transformed by the Web, and Yahoo! has played a pioneering role by building compelling, high-scale services and infrastructure," said Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft.

JF Translation: Yahoo! was once pretty hot stuff. Remember?

Microsoft: "The combination of these two great teams would enable us to jointly deliver a broad range of new experiences to our customers that neither of us would have achieved on our own."

JF Translation: Individually, we're toast.

Microsoft: The online advertising market is growing at a very fast pace, from over $40 billion in 2007 to nearly $80 billion by 2010.

JF Translation: The game shifted right under our feet.

Microsoft: The resulting benefits of scale along with the associated capital costs for advertising platform providers make this a time of industry consolidation and convergence.

JF Translation: Now that the dollars are getting real, there will only be room for the biggest of the big boys.

Microsoft: Today this market is increasingly dominated by one player.

JF Translation: We dare not mention their name, but it rhymes with oogle. And dominance is very, very, very bad.

Microsoft: Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a competitive choice while better fulfilling the needs of customers and partners.

JF Translation: The world always wants a viable number-two.

Microsoft: "The combined assets and strong services focus of these two companies will enable us to achieve scale economics while reaching R&D critical mass to deliver innovation breakthroughs," said Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms & Services Division of Microsoft.

JF Translation: Bankrolled by Microsoft's incredible cash, the old Yahoo! magic might come back. Even if it doesn't, we'll have enough inventory scale to keep from getting buried.

Microsoft: "The industry will be well served by having more than one strong player, offering more value and real choice to advertisers, publishers and consumers."

JF Translation: A duopoly is much better than a monopoly. And like we said, we're really warming up to this "choice" idea.

JF Translation: And, oh yeah, there may be some teeny opportunities to leverage our still-dominant operating system, but it's really not worth mentioning... particularly given our new love of choice.

Microsoft: Microsoft believes these four areas will generate at least $1 billion in annual synergy for the combined entity.

JF Translation: Microsoft believes there's about $950 in Yahoo! overhead that can be scrubbed out.

Microsoft: Microsoft has developed a plan and process that will include the employees of both companies to focus on the integration of the combined business. Microsoft intends to offer significant retention packages to Yahoo! engineers, key leaders and employees across all disciplines.

JF Translation: We've got either McKinsey or Bain working on the rewiring, and we already know who is worthy of keeping at Yahoo!

Microsoft: Microsoft believes this proposed combination would receive all necessary regulatory approvals and expects that the proposed transaction would be completed in the second half of calendar year 2008.

JF Translation: We are counting on Google's dominance to justify a deal that in other circumstances probably shouldn't be approved, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that we can get it cleared before the new administration takes office.

Microsoft: Microsoft is also committed to working closely with Yahoo! management and its Board of Directors as they, along with Yahoo! shareholders, evaluate this compelling proposal.

JF Translation: Those of influence will be well rewarded if the deal is consummated.

Google felt compelled to issue a statement of its own, which also requires Jack Flack's translation.