Microsoft To Buy eBay?

According to New York Post, Microsoft is currently discussing with eBay in order to acquire the World's Online Marketplace.
It might be a huge deal for Microsoft, as well as further increasing its monopoly, and for sure not improving the on-going disputes with the European Commission.
But it is also not so surprising, Microsoft has started buying numerous start-up companies for a couple of months already. This is probably a reaction to the growing pressure applied by Google.
It might be the beginning of a new war in the Internet Business field... we all remember how the first war ended up when the bubble blew up...leaving numerous companies in the dust couple of years ago.