Microsoft accepts Stanley Bing's offer; Bing.com to merge identities

Who said Microsoft doesn't have a sense of humour? This is a joke.

Stanley Bing is a columnist at Fortune. When he discovered Microsoft's search engine was to be called Bing he issued a tongue-in-cheek press release. Here's the intro to it;

LONG-TIME FORTUNE COLUMNIST AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR STANLEY BING CONDEMNS “BRAND INTRUSION” BY NEW MICROSOFT SEARCH ENGINE, ALSO TO BE NAMED “BING”

OFFERS SERVICES TO NEW ENTITY FOR “ANY REASONABLE OFFER”

NEW YORK, MAY 28, 2009 – Stanley Bing, FORTUNE Magazine columnist and best-selling author, today expressed “moderate outrage” at the branding of the new search engine to be offered by Microsoft, also to be called Bing. At the same time, Bing the Author took the unusual step of offering an initial olive branch to Bing the Search Engine, proposing that the two powerful brands merge into one for which Mr. Bing could be the logo, corporate symbol and spokesman, to the extent that it fits in with his other duties.

.. and guess what? Over at the Live Search blog there's been a response!

A Letter to Bing

We couldn’t help sit up and take notice of your offer of services from one Bing to another. We were moderately surprised and mildly excited. As you might have guessed, today is quite a big day for us. Even so, we dropped everything when we saw your press release this morning. After an emergency meeting (three people were invited, all declined), we’ve decided to take you up on your offer. We’re not certain what exactly this would involve. We’re not certain it would pay much (nothing, actually) but we look forward to starting a dialogue and hope we can work together soon. Let’s do lunch. In the meantime we are sending you a case of moderately priced cigars.

Your pals,
Bing.com