Bill Gates isn’t ready to pack it in.

In a move that could signal its intention to go to court against two Internet giants, the U.S. Justice Department has hired the former head of its antitrust division to look at a revenue-sharing deal between Google and Yahoo Inc.

In an effort to jazz up its image, Microsoft Corp. is hiring Jerry Seinfeld, the 54-year-old comedian whose last starring role ended 10 years ago.

As dissident shareholder Carl Icahn warned that Yahoo! is “moving toward a precipice” and “it is time for a change,” Microsoft said today it could renew its effort to buy Yahoo! The catch: First Yahoo! shareholders must vote in a new slate of directors at their Aug. 1 meeting.

Wouldn’t you love to know what you’d earn if you worked for your employer’s biggest competitor?

Microsoft’s employee No. 105 will soon become the No. 1 employee at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest foundation in the world.

In a collaborative campaign to compete with Microsoft in internet-delivered software, Google and Salesforce.com have become increasingly cozy.

Gates men are suckers for smart women.

Microsoft has brought in a Washington lobbying firm, Bryan Cave Strategies, to help in its drive to buy Yahoo.

Bill Gates and Pete Peterson

Bill Gates may have lost top seating on the Forbes billionaires list, but he leads Vanity Fair’s accounting of America’s 50 richest paydays.

The magazine ranked windfalls that came from big deals such as company sales, real estate transactions and stock cash-outs. Gates sold $2.5 billion in Microsoft stock last year.

Microsoft’s bid to acquire Yahoo has put a harsh spotlight, perhaps too late, on the company’s board.

Kara Swisher, writing on All Things Digital this morning, predicts that the directors’ response to the unsolicited buyout attempt may simply be inertia.

Being pursued by Microsoft hasn’t deterred Yahoo from its own pursuits of smaller fry.

Yahoo announced yesterday that it had paid $160 million for Maven Networks, a firm that sells video-management systems for online advertising. Maven’s customers include such major media outfits as Gannett, Scripps and Fox News.

The head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Patty Stonesifer, told The New York Times that she would step down as head of the world’s largest philanthropic organization by the end of the year.

“It’s the right time,” Stonesifer, 51, told the Times. “We have a lot of momentum now, our strategies are in place, and it’s time to take the organization to the next level where we deliver on those strategies.”

Can Google maintain the company motto - “Don’t be evil” - while building a powerful lobbying machine?

That’s just one of the challenges facing the internet giant. Another is Microsoft, a competitor not only on the web, but in the courts and the halls of Congress.

Such a deal has long been speculated about because of Yahoo’s sagging prospects. This morning Microsoft made it a reality by offering $44.6 billion ($31 a share) for Yahoo! That’s more than a 60 percent premium over Yahoo’s closing price Thursday.

Who knew Bill Gates could be funny?

In his “last day” video shown at the Consumer Electronics Show Sunday, Gates debuted his comedic side, with the help of some famous friends.

In the video, Gates goes over the opportunities he could possibly pursue after leaving Microsoft full-time. He pumps iron with Matthew McConaughey, raps with Jay-Z, and offers his Guitar Hero skills to U2’s frontman, Bono. After trying to negotiate a biopic with Steven Spielberg and George Clooney, Gates offers his services as a running mate to both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

The Federal Trade Commission today approved Google’s $3.1 acquisition of DoubleClick, clearing the way for tremendous growth in the company’s online advertising revenues.

Microsoft and consumer privacy organizations had opposed the deal, arguing that it would create an advertising monopoly.

Writing the first draft of history is always perilous.

In September 2004, in a story about a then new lawsuit that accused Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the idea for Facebook from fellow Harvard students, The Boston Globe wrote: “There isn’t much money at stake.”

Oops.

Today Facebook is valued on paper at $15 billion or so, making Zuckerberg’s 20 percent stake worth $3 billion. The 23-year-old is well on his way to becoming the second richest Harvard dropout in history, behind Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft.

The story on Thanksgiving Day began bravely (ironically?) with five simple words: “Even lawyers need a hug.”

But if they’re a recent law school graduate already making well over $100,000 a year do they also need free milkshakes brought to their desks?

The “happiness committee” at the Washington office of the law firm Perkins Coie has answered that question in the affirmative, according to The New York Times.

Despite losing to Microsoft in its bid for a piece of Facebook, Google isn’t giving up on social networks.

The behemoth of search is partnering with other tech companies and social networks to develop a competing approach called OpenSocial. The open-source technology will enable developers to write applications that can be used on many sites, including partners in the project, such as LinkedInand Friendster.