Microsoft buying Yahoo might be good for Microsoft, but it wouldn't be good for Yahoo, and I think that's why Jerry Yang was so against doing a deal, and why he held out for a valuation so much higher than the original stock price.

I mean, who really wants to be bought out by a company that:

1) Is a convicted monopolist in 5 or 6 jurisdictions
2) Has carried out a 10 year battle with the EU over whether they would obey the law
3) Has avoided obeying the law in the USA by buying of the Bush regime
4) Threatened to stop making Korean versions of Windows and Office when the Korean competition people moved against them
5) Destroyed emails deliberately rather than turning them over during discovery in the BURST case
6) Redesigned their Email Server software to make it easier to destroy emails so they cannot be turned over in discovery
7) Used dirty tricks to get ISO approval of OOXML
8) Has a reputation that is so low that the company can walk under a snake with a top hat on

In effect what Jerry Yang was saying was that he didn't want his company bought by the Tony Soprano of the tech industry, and I can't blame him one little bit. Some business people do retain shreds of honor, though the general public probably wouldn't believe this.

And of course a final reason - who would want to work for a Vole?


Maybe the members of the board of Yahoo! do understand...
Maybe they want yahoo to stay free.
Sometimes it's not all about the money...but providing value and service.


If Yahoo only had more debt than they were worth, then a broke would think thwice at tying to schwee-p up the peeces.

... Agency Dilemma = Mismanagement