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[3xBuBu]

too late for Yahoo's Yang: Best Option Is For Microsoft To Buy Yahoo while he did not want to sell @30's
now may only worth less than 20s
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200811052144DOWJONESDJONLINE001018_FORTUNE5.htm

Jerry Yang said Wednesday that Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) best option was to buy his company.

"To this day, I'd say the best thing for Microsoft to do is buy Yahoo," Yang said during an appearance at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. He added: "We're willing to sell the company."

The embattled CEO quickly noted that Microsoft, which made an unsolicited $ 47.5 billion takeover attempt earlier this year, has repeatedly indicated it is no longer interested in buying Yahoo. In response to questions, Yang said he was "open minded about a search deal" with Microsoft, "but it has to make sense."

Yang made the comments just hours after rival and prospective partner Google Inc. (GOOG) walked away from a search advertising pact between the companies as concerns mounted that U.S. regulators were prepared to file a lawsuit to block the agreement. The proposed deal had also prompted a backlash from advertisers, who worried Google was gaining too much power in the Internet advertising space.

The collapse of the deal, which Yahoo had hoped would generate millions of dollars in revenue, ignited a rally in Yahoo's stock as analysts speculated Microsoft would be tempted to take another run at Yahoo.

Yahoo shares rose 4.3% to $13.92 Wednesday.

At the conference, Yang suggested there were no changes in his company's relationship with Microsoft. "There is no new news there," he said.

Microsoft declined to comment on Yang's statements.

He also declined to comment on Yahoo's ongoing discussions with Time Warner Inc. (TWX) about buying its AOL unit.

Asked how Yahoo expects to be able to compete with Google without a partner such as Microsoft, which has far greater financial resources, Yang replied that the company was not capital constrained.

"We've looked at the search business and decided we are well capitalized. Search is largely innovation-based rather than capital. We think we are spending per search share about the right amount of capital," he said.

Yang also said he disagreed with Department of Justice's decision to try to block his company's deal with Google.

"I really thought that the government in this case does not understand our industry. They have a market view that is too narrow. I clearly don't agree with what the viewpoint is," he said.