There has been a pretty strong reaction to rumours that Microsoft is thinking of buying Claria/Gator. Most people seem to be overlooking the fact that this could actually be a good thing (tm). Microsoft are probably interested in some of their user profiling technology rather than looking for a new branch to their business.
If other rumours are true that Microsoft is planning to bring out an AdSense-style technology then the Claria/Gator algorithms would be quite useful. The big question mark would be whether the algorithms would still work with out a client-side browser plug-in phoning home.