the looksmart yo-yo, page-4

I'm no expert on these matters, but I'm sure MS would be looking at building their own search engine, it's their field, it's what they do.
What they don't have or do or I suspect, want to do is compile and manage their own web directory. That's where the money is in paid search.
There are plenty of good search engines out there, but few are able to 'monetise' the search results and still provide strong relevence. It's one thing to have good search results, but how do you make it pay?
The key is bringing buyers and sellers together and getting paid for it. If a search can provide highly relevent results to the buyer/searcher a sale is more likely. This is what attracts advertisers to paid search, ROI is higher than normal advertising mediums because it brings the buyers and sellers together at the right time, i.e. when the buyer is actively seeking a product.
Unless MS wants to go thru the time and effort to build a world class directory of thousands of small, medium and large businesses, (remember, MSN is a tech or media co, not a sales co, if they were seriously thinking of starting their own directory they would have to employ many sales people and editing personel etc etc)
Much easier to leave dealing with the pesky, complaining advertisers to a third party and just take a big chunk of the revenue, (100% profit)
Or, if they really wanted to go down this path, then it might be quicker and simpler to buy Looksmart outright. To my thinking, MSN would rather outsource the directory side of things regardless of what search engine was used. Remember Looksmart provides a substantial amount of low cost revenue, 40 - 50mil and growing rapidly. MSN is not cashflow positive so wont turn it's back so quickly on the current arrangement.
Another view might be MSN is seeing it's competitors buying up everything in the sector, as Looksmart is the last man standing in paid inclusion, it might just decide to take it off the market.
Then again, none of this could be true....