Apple, Universal and Microsoft

Rumors of Apple buying Universal Music spread quickly across the Mac Web yesterday...

The New York Post reports that Microsoft has also expressed interest in buying Vivendi's Universal Music Group:

Microsoft's interest is said to be at the level of "poking around, kicking the tires," but it has indeed had conversations with Vivendi executives about buying the music division, sources said.

A bidding war may not ensue however... as this New York Times article claims that according to their sources -- the Apple-Universal deal was "unlikely to be concluded":

The talks between Apple and Vivendi covered the concept of buying as much as a third of the music unit, according to people close to the discussions. But the talks appear to have been just exploratory discussions that did not go far.