Last month we saw Bill dip into the Microsoft back pocket with the purchase of Navision. There is now speculation that WorldCom, the global telecoms operator, may be next on the shopping list.

Microsoft have been saving hard over the last few years. With all the speculation over the DoJ case it looked at one stage as though the company may be digging deep into its pockets for reparations.

With nearly $40bn in cash and cash-equivalents on the balance sheets, and the DoJ case painfully nearing its end, Bill and the boys can now go on a shopping spree as they continue their attempt at world domination.

Like any telecoms-associated vendor, WorldCom has not had the best of fortunes recently. Earlier this month the company agreed revisions to a $1.5bn financing agreement with its banks. This followed its fall from grace with the financial community as it dropped out of Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

As a result, 670 million WorldCom stocks were traded, which made it the highest traded stock since just over 300 million Intel shares changed hands in September 2000.

So, what would be the attraction of such a company to Microsoft? Well, aside from it being an absolute bargain, the acquisition would give Microsoft a massive presence in the telecoms space. But you might ask why the Redmond giant would want a place in a sector that has taken an absolute battering in the last 2 years.

Think .Net.

Okay, it is difficult to escape it these days as the web services war between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems continues. But it has been well-publicised that the move of IT from the desktop to the Internet poses a serious threat to Microsoft, which has responded with its .Net strategy.

Now that Bill has realised that the future will be based on network applications the acquisition of WorldCom, with the world's best internet backbone, would provide Microsoft with a massive advantage.

Add to this the Xbox. There has been much hype around the console war currently taking place between Sony, the incumbent, and Microsoft, the young pretender.

Both companies have slashed prices in an effort to gain, or retain, market share. One of the big plays of the Xbox is the built-in broadband modem; anyone going for Sony's PlayStation will need to buy extra kit to get online. We've yet to see what the Xbox network will look like but there are a number of games in the Xbox's portfolio, such as the class-leading Halo, that will quickly get gamers on line.

That is two reasons why Microsoft needs a telco and they are, after all, two of the company's biggest plays at the moment.