It is official, MSFT dropped their bid for Yahoo! and at least for now, ain't comin' back. Ballmer even said that the Redmond giant wasn't planning a proxy fight, either, pursuing instead a more "organic" strategy. --The Industry Standard

The WSJ has it the MSFT's next move i.e. a proxy battle, is imminent. As background, Marc Andreessen had an incredibly helpful post up two days ago on what exactly MSFT's options are and what a proxy battle would look like. And TechCrunch's Mark Hendrickson has a list of 8 of MSFT's 12 proposed board members.

This is a prediction that must satisfy the following 2 conditions in order to be judged favorably:

First, MSFT formally engages in a proxy battle with Yahoo! (which would be marked by the official nomination of a new board of directors) Second, the list of nominees includes at least 6 of the 8 names mentioned by TechCrunch.

The deadline for betting on this prediction is May 9.