One wonders how much Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang paid for the advice he received from Goldman Sachs. And whether it was listened to.

Over the past four months Mr Yang's strategy to fend off Microsoft's $47.5 billion offer has been to ignore it and hope it would go away. In that, at least, he was successful.

But he failed miserably to come up with a convincing plan that would lift the share price to the $33 Microsoft was offering. And now he faces a more aggressive opponent in the form of Carl Icahn.

Mr Yang is no longer just fighting for the independence of his company, but also for his own survival.

His best hope may be to pick up the phone again to Microsoft's Steve Ballmer. “Now, about that offer ...”

david.wighton@thetimes.co.uk

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