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There’s plenty of news and opinion about what will ultimately happen with the Yahoo buyout deal. What with news of talent exodus, golden parachutes, lack of formal rejection letters, and proxy battles. But stepping aside from the mainstream opinion clouds, let’s look at some of the other pervasive and completely tangential what-if scenarios:

1. Apple buys Yahoo! – As some have discussed here, Yahoo! provides Apple with a huge entry into the Chinese market, helps with the online bits (iTunes, iStore, etc.). Apple in return helps Yahoo! maintain its online web presence and grow to lead the market share in search and display advertising. Other interesting integrations would be iChat+Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Music+iTunes, iPhone+Yahoo! Go+oneConnect.
2. Yahoo! Japan buys Yahoo! Inc – Another idea that’s been pondered here. Yahoo! Japan is Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! all rolled into one in Japan. Can Yahoo! Japan swallow up Yahoo? What does Y! Japan stand to gain (if they already have the necessary technology and have the majority market share)? Will it help Y! Japan to have a controlling stake in Alibaba in the chinese market? That might make things interesting.
3. Amazon.com partners with Yahoo! – I’m not sure this has been discussed widely, but it would be an interesting angle. Amazon could help Yahoo! out with its shopping areas. Yahoo! Mobile could bring Amazon’s store to every mobile out there. In areas of technology, Yahoo! can contribute to (failed?) Amazon’s A9 Search, and both could join forces with Hadoop (and other grid computing efforts) with EC2. Bring in the social element of relating users’ reviews, wishlists, etc. with their inboxes and voila, you have much more relevant advertising profiles.

Some of the above are highly unlikely and most are probably not even on the table. But while you think about them, here are some parting questions:

• What other interesting scenarios can you think of?
• What other partnerships could potentially make sense?
• What other integrations can likely happen that haven’t been explored yet?

Disclaimer: I don’t claim to have any insider information about the possibility of any of the above, nor are the views expressed in this article the views of my employer, Yahoo!