The Financial Times’s Lex column is usually a redoubt of good sense and unsentimental steeliness in regard to corporate performance.

But something went badly awry on the Lex team today. Here’s the suggestion (subscribers only): since share buybacks haven’t revived Microsoft’s shares, why doesn’t the Redmond behemoth buy Yahoo? It would narrow Google’s lead in search, transform Microsoft’s trailing portal and bring in advertising expertise. Yes, there would be regulatory concerns and execution risk, but… yadda, yadda, yadda.

Leave aside the generally dismal record on big acquisitions in most industries. If there were ever a formula for finally sucking life and innovation out of a good chunk of the technology industry, this would be it. I know Yahoo has lagged Google in the last couple of years in new ideas, but the continued competition between the two has been wholly good for us humble users. The last thing the world needs is even greater big company sclerosis.