Too little, too late.

Yahoo had value to Ballmer when he could have bought them and had more search eyeballs than Google. Google are now bigger than everyone else combined. Therefore Yahoo has no value to Ballmer and he probably would not take them at $1 per share.

Jerry was a silly arrogant bugger. Perhaps he's now realised this.

Instead of coming up with more webby things, they instead concentrate on release a FreeBSD! and Yahoo! branded desktop.

It would be a killer.

I actually see a lot of traffic from Yahoo for things non tech, I think quite a lot of the normal people rather like Yahoo, I think it still has number one home page position.

So first, Microsoft want to buy Yahoo, but Yahoo resist.

Then Google throw Yahoo an option to escape a Microsoft takeover (a takeover which would be against Googles best interests).

Microsoft then walk away, definitely no longer interested.

Google pull out of the deal, citing justice dept interest as the cause.

Am I the only one here who thinks that Google played Yahoo (and Microsoft) here?

They helped out Yahoo just long enough to make sure Microsoft lost interest.

Well done Microsoft for telling Yang to shove it.

I love that the day Google shafted him, Yang went back groveling to Microsoft and they turned thier backs.

Justice for similar treatment he had given them not too long ago.

The arrogant idiot ought to be made to make up the difference to his shareholders between Microsofts offer and todays current share price. Stepping down is the easy option.

The poor shares lost over a third in value because Yang thought he was too good for Microsoft.

I truly don't see Yahoo surviving this very well.

If I was one of thier employees, I would be looking desperately for another job right now, before they sink.

"But the Mountain Viewers backed out of the deal earlier this month, after the US Justice Department threatened an antitrust suit"

QuITe. How dare two Internet companies threaten to provide Beta Governance than all the assembled Wonks and Snouts in the Executive Administration Pork Trough.

Don't worry Jerry, the Yin of the boys at GCHEESE is still green and they are obviously easily Spooked into doing as they are told, and therefore as CoLead Partners in Joint AddAIdDVentures would be Both Practically and Virtually Useless. ..... an Expensive Millstone rather than Valuable Catalyst .

Of course, I understand that these people still have to talk to each other every day for a while yet, but I doubt that any of the shareholders partake in this rosy view of Yang's involvement at the head of Yahoo!.

Sounds a lot like Dubya's endorsement of the "great job" that the other numbskull did in New Orleans.

Yang should not have accepted the trojan directors.

You've not been keeping up, have you. There are several excellent Linux distributions (Ubuntu best IMHO) but they will never become mainstream because, as we've seen with the Netbook debacle, if you give people a computer they can install software on, they will try, by and large, to install Windows software. When they can't, they get all confused and take back their 'faulty' computer.

Linux and Unix will by and large be restricted to (a) Apple, (b) geeks and (c) handhelds of all flavours. I can't see a situation where Unix/Linux desktops, excluding Apple, have more than 5% of the home market. And if Windows 7 is not another Vista, I would also expect the migration away from Windows to slow.

Anybody - even almighty Google - releasing a Unix desktop will not get significant market share.

Yang has never shown any talent for business, and certainly has never acted in the interest of Yahoo's owners, the stockholders. Claiming otherwise does not make it so. At this point, Yahoo is fatally wounded. It also is no longer of any value to Microsoft. Yahoo will continue to slide and will probably be under $5 by the end of the year.

A very rare occurrence... incompetent CEO is relieved of command. Next thing you know Prince Charles will take the throne.

Now Jerry's gone, whither thou Steve Ballmer and the giant chequebook (albeit a rather smaller giant chequebook than it was a few months ago)

Yahoo is still a good buy - outside of search it has a lot of excellent stuff, and it has the one thing that could (just could) get it more traction in search - the Brand. That's what MS were after, not just the tech.

The problem of businesses having to act in the interests of their stockholders is that many stockholders don't understand the business and don't know how to measure success. Secondly, the stock market is basically a pyramid scam and many only buy stock just to sell it later.

How are you going to run a business to please these people when a geek like Yang would be running it to please customers and developers?

And on that note, I must get round to backing up my Yahoo Mail a little more often than yearly, what with the stock market such at it is. Hopefully Yahoo won't get bought up by Microsoft, who bought HoTMaiL, turned it into multicoloured disaster which runs at the speed of a turtle, and pleased their shareholders.

My Bank Shares have lost a lot more than 2/3rds of their value in this timeframe. An internet company going into a crash is clearly not somewhere you'd expect your money to be particularly safe going into a massive global downturn