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Roy Bostock, Yahoo's chairman of the board, has responded to corporate raider Carl Icahn. The one-word version: "Unfortunately." That word sums up so well the letter, Yahoo's hamhanded reply to Icahn, and the whole sorry mess. Bostock has a point: There has not been a written offer on the table since Yahoo rejected Microsoft in February, and so neither the current board nor Icahn's replacements have any proposed sale to consider.

But the letter is a stiffly worded blowoff, with a non-sequitur ending, "We look forward to a productive dialogue." Dialogue about what, precisely? All the ways Yahoo's board is right, and Icahn is wrong? Bostock may well have a point there, but this is no way to handle a combative professional tormentor of companies. Icahn is a vain old fool who requires substanceless coddling, not factual arguments.