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Yahoo's stock has stayed well above its premerger level of $19, suggesting that its post-Microsoft-bid performance isn't just a matter of shorts covering their positions. Perhaps ever-optimistic Wall Street arbitrageurs believe Steve Ballmer will come back with another offer. Or perhaps buy-and-hold types believe Yahoo will outsource search advertising to Google, increasing its cash flow by $1 billion. Well, bad news, Yahoo shareholders. Ballmer and Microsoft have moved on, to Facebook and other prospects. And Google? With Microsoft out of the picture, its executives are suddenly, conveniently worried about what a search deal would look like to Washington regulators.

The Wall Street Journal reports these executives are "divided" over whether to go through with a deal. BoomTown's Kara Swisher reports "it is more likely than not" that Google will monetize some Yahoo search queries, but only if the deal is transparently "non-exclusive, limited and also low-key" — in other words, not worth close to $1 billion.