Yahoo! rumoured to buy an ISP in France

Rodrigo on his blog reports that Yahoo! France wants to buy an ISP. He concludes that it should be Iliad, working under the Free.fr label.

At first sight this may seem an odd combination, comparable to the eBay/Skype deal, but it really isn't. Yahoo! is already involved in web access:

1. Yahoo! Japan (Yahoo! 32%, Softbank 41%) offers a complete triple play: Yahoo! BB (broadband), BB Phone (VoIP) and BB Video. It's infrastructure-based.
2. Alliances with SBC and Verizon in the VS, Rogers in Canada and BT in England. Yahoo! premium content is free for broadband subs, in exchange for a few bucks per sub per montth (revenue sharing).
3. Acquisition of Iliad would follow the Japanese strategy.

Of course you can wonder: where is this supposed to end: cooperate in each country, or buy an ISP outright? And next mobile telephony, to complete the quadruple play?