Microsoft Lays Out Yahoo! Integration Plans

SAN FRANCISCO - Keep talking about something as a foregone conclusion, and eventually it will become one.

Microsoft(MSFT Quote) may not have yet raised its spurned bid yet for Yahoo!(YHOO Quote), but the Redmond, Wash., software giant is keeping the mega-merger alive in the minds of Yahoo! shareholders by talking about it.

In a publicly disclosed email to Microsoft employees Friday, Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's platform and services business, laid out more of his thinking about the merger, including assurances that once a deal is completed, Microsoft would keep Yahoo! in Silicon Valley.

But he stopped short of saying the Internet company's current main campus would remain its base of operations. ...