Yahoo to MS: Drop the nudnik, maybe we do a deal

The headlines this evening report yet another Yahoo rejection of an offer to sell its search business to Microsoft. But the wording of the latest chapter in the epistolary negotiations between these companies drops intriguing hints about a possible denouement. On the surface, this latest rebuff sounds like a recapitulation of Yahoo's previous rejections. But that's painting with too broad a brush. Consider the following: Yahoo!'s Board points out that a transaction to acquire the whole company would be much more straightforward and involve far less risk than the new proposal or any similar alternative. The Board believes a whole company transaction could be negotiated and executed prior to August 1st. In rejecting the Microsoft/Icahn proposal, Yahoo! not only repeated its offer to sell the entire Company to Microsoft for at... [read full story]