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Believe it all not, this time the title really says it all. Reuters reports that Yahoo plans to send a letter to Microsoft on Monday, in which they’ll state they’re not opposed to a deal with Microsoft per se, but they think their company is worth more than the $31 per share which is what Microsoft is offering them.

They also plan to “reject Microsoft’s suggestion that its business is deteriorating,” but let’s wait for the actual letter to appear, shall we? What seemed like the most exciting tech story of the year is now turning into a snoozefest.

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer spent some quality time with his negotiations team over the past few hours and considered the actions of Yahoo concerning the $44.6 billion bid issued publicly back in February, and has come to a conclusion: enough is enough. Redmond has now made it clear in a letter published today that the Yahoo board has three weeks to come to some sort of agreement.

What Ballmer wants to do between now and then is sit down, have a nice, super-serious chat about Microsoft and Yahoo’s desires going forward. Ballmer wants to make some impression of cordiality. If he can do things civil, he wants civil. Yet he makes evident that if the two parties are not to come to a “definitive agreement,” Microsoft “will be compelled to take (its) case directly to (Yahoo’s) shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo board.” Ballmer goes on to press Yahoo’s feet to the proverbial fire saying:

“The substantial premium in our initial proposal anticipated a friendly transaction with you. If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal.”

What does this pressure push amount to? Is Ballmer implying that, if the Yahoo board continues to barrage itself against a deal as requested by Microsoft originally, and Yahoo’s market value diminishes further as a result of such opposition, that the software giant of the north will partly or entirely cut its offer for the Sunnyvale-based company, as Silicon Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget has optioned? One may well intuit such an ultimatum from the letter. Ballmer’s phrasing is strong enough yet still vague (which is to be expected, given the present state of the attempted buyout) to imply that all options are on the table, including a complete revocation of the original bid.

A response from Yahoo has not yet been delivered, but it would be sensible to predict one to come in the next few days. Of course, one can surely count on Yahoo’s volley to be equally generic in language. At least we now know when the clock for direct talks stops. (Granted, that assumes that Microsoft will keep precisely to alloted timeframe. We can only wait to see whether that challenge is a definite one.)

The latest report from Nielsen Online about traffic to social networking sites in the US shows Windows Live Spaces has taken a 15% hit for year-over-year February traffic.

Kip Kniskern of LiveSide points out that, though Windows Live Spaces came in 4th for the year, it does endured a 15% drop. A pretty significant fall, yes? MySpace is of course still the #1 network for unique visitors per month, and according to Nielsen’s numbers, grew 4% from last year. Facebook is #2, but its traffic is supposedly not yet half as trafficked as the market leader. LinkedIn sits firmly in 5th, with a hefty 271% growth trend in its pocket.

All of this data covers the February numbers, and with some of the major news that has hit so far in March, such as MySpace’s developer platform going live and AOL buying Bebo, 2008 is bound to be an even rougher time for Microsoft and its Windows Live Spaces property.

 Just a brief clip on Yahoo News dated Feb. 1, 2008: Microsoft to Pay $31 Per Share for Yahoo, Totaling $44.6 Billion in Cash and Stock

And here’s a Press Release with today’s date:

Microsoft Proposes Acquisition of Yahoo! for $31 per Share

It’s hitting news sites one after another now.

From Fortune’s Daily Briefing