Ballmer refuses to encourage Icahn's Yahoo raid
For Carl Icahn to earn a quick profit on Yahoo, snatching up 3.5 percent of the company at around $25 a share and then selling to Microsoft at $33, Microsoft executives have to play along. So far they aren't doing so. They've told Icahn they have "moved on" and do not plan to reconsider a Yahoo merger. Meanwhile, sources familiar with the matter — we're guessing Googlers eager to see Icahn's effort kiboshed — tell the Wall Street Journal that a Google-Yahoo search advertising deal, the one that drove Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer from the negotiating table in the first place, is now "more likely than not."