United Online, which operates NetZero and Juno, has proposed to buy Classmates.com for a hundred million dollars. After all, it's been some time since they found a good waste of money. They had a great deal going with "NetZero at the Half" on the NBA on NBC, before the NBA moved to ABC.

$100 million for a service that merely allows people to stay in touch? (I think I registered once and have not been back to the site since.) Even United Online seems to be having second thoughts. The announcement of the proposed acquisition was buried in its earnings press release, and tacked on as a headline afterthought. That's hardly an endorsement of a dubious way to spend free cash.