This one is the latest installment to that rumor back in November that Microsoft was trying to, or at least had plans of acquiring Capcom. Only this time, "independent sources" are telling Evil Avatar's fitbabits that Microsoft has "all but completed the purchase of Capcom." Of course, there is no word from either Capcom or Microsoft to confirm or deny this. Hence, we're all reporting this as a rumor.

However, we're sort of disinclined to believe this one at this point. For one thing, the perfect opportunity for Microsoft to announce something like this would have been during CES - the perfect audience, and Bill Gates himself had the perfect podium to announce this as keynote. From an investor's perspective, it would provide the perfect end-of-fiscal-year boost to stock prices and carry over to 1Q of the next fiscal year.

Now, there is the possibility that the purchase was concluded too late for it to have made CES, and we're open to the possibility. Still, things like this take quite a bit of time to execute, and if it had been conducted secretly, just as much time to leak out through the network of retailers and the aforementioned "insider sources". Besides, something this big can't stay secret forever.

IF (and that's a big IF) this is true, it's likely that there will be an announcement forthcoming, which would be perfectly-timed for investors to react to. Stay tuned.