Yang groveling to Ballmer: no one is surprised

It must be tremendously satisfying to Steve Ballmer to hear Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang publicly plea for Microsoft to buy Yahoo -- at a bargain basement price. The only one that can be surprised at Yahoo's downward spiral since it pushed Microsoft away can be Yang. The now-failed deal with Google was never the kind of shoo-in that would have seriously revived Yahoo anyway. Google has already won the market.

If Microsoft can pick Yahoo up for pennies, might be worthwhile. But most of Yahoo's best people have left, and the company's tarnished image as it has desperately tried to sell itself to various competitors, while spurning the one that wanted it -- doesn't make it much of a winner anymore. The poor shareholders and the poor employees who have seen the value of their holdings smashed to smithereens are the real losers here. The Internet-using public has more choices for search and social networking than ever before.

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