"SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang said Wednesday that Microsoft should buy his pioneering Internet firm despite failed takeover talks between the companies earlier this year.

"To this day, I would say the best thing for Microsoft is to buy Yahoo," Yang said during an on-stage chat with journalist John Battelle at a Web 2.0 summit on Internet Age companies and their business strategies.

"Did we want to do the deal? Yes."

Microsoft has said repeatedly that it is no longer interested in buying the floundering Northern California firm.

"Our position hasn't changed," Microsoft said in a statement released in October. "Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo. There are no discussions between the companies."

The Redmond, Washington-based company issued the statement after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer commented that the business reasons for a Yahoo acquisition still make sense.

Microsoft on January 31 offered to buy Yahoo for 44.6 billion dollars in a half-cash, half-stock deal.
...."

Link:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_Qu38iEJ1N179iQG6ZC9SWXsdBw

And this just happens to be announced the day after the Google deal fell through?

Flashback to half a year ago, my emphasis:

<<Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief executive officer, Yahoo! Inc. added, “I am incredibly proud of the way our team has come together over the last three months. This process has underscored our unique and valuable strategic position. With the *distraction of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal* now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history so that we can maximize our potential to the benefit of our shareholders, employees, partners and users.”>> (Business Wire, according to Brinke Guthrie)
http://blogoscoped.com/forum/130278.html

A new victory coming for Carl Icahn? ;)