AOL-Yahoo! Merger Not Happening, But That Doesn't Mean the Two Companies Are Going to Suck Any Less

Turns out a bunch of bankers made the whole thing up.

Surprising, isn't it? And here I thought that bankers were just as honest as car salesmen. Sarcasm aside,

reports that that AOL

and Yahoo!

are not talking about a merger “any more than I am a Yahoo CEO candidate.” Swisher said that according to at least 223 of her sources at Yahoo, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong isn't going to become the chief exec of Yahoo! – nor are the two companies going to

. While her number of sources is large and specific (and may be a slight exaggeration to drive the point home), one can't help but wonder if hundreds of Yahoo employees flocked to Swisher with information the moment they heard the (apparently) false reports. How did this whole mess get started? Swisher said that over-enthusiastic bankers decided to spin a tale of “hopes and dreams that has no basis in reality.” “To add to the confusion, AOL and Yahoo now share Allen & Co. these days to evaluate their strategic options, adding yet another level of inbred oddness on top of the situation,” she wrote. I guess this means that AOL and Yahoo are determined to continue sucking all on their own.