TechCrunch is reporting that Microsoft has “excused” the proposed slate of new Yahoo board members telling them that they won’t be needed anymore.    I don’t think this tells us much if anything about the status of a new deal which rumors suggest may come from the Yahoo board’s concern over losing…billions of dollars.

I think MS is just playing this very smart.  These little measures are designed to get the current Yahoo board to rethink their folly.   I think only Jerry was dead set against the merger and the rest of the board would have settled for 35 or even 34 per share.   Why wouldn’t they?   Yahoo has been languishing for years, and the chance of getting back to 34 *without Microsoft* is fairly slim in the coming lean advertising years, not to mention the fact that low morale, challenges at the company, and the declining prospects with Microsoft may take the stock even lower.

Yahoo should have sold at 33 and I think they will almost certainly sell at 35 due to pressure from Shareholders and (more importantly) heavily vested board members who are “losing”, collectively, several billion dollars by sticking to their guns in this.