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Reason No. 8347 why we're glad we're not Jerry Yang: We like weekends away from work. Yang never gets them anymore. On Saturday night, Yahoo released a statement letting the world know it rejected yet another Microsoft offer to acquire Yahoo's search business. Kara Swisher reported the terms of that deal today. $2.3 billion a year for outsourcing search — why didn't Microsoft offer that in the first place, without corporate raider Carl Icahn holding a gun to Yang's head? That seems easier. The bullet points, below:

  • $1 billion for the search business and a five-year guarantee of $2.3 billion in search ad revenue, with an option to renew it another five years at a $1.6 billion minimum.
  • An offer by Microsoft to buy $3.9 billion of Yahoo shares, and loan the company $2.8 billion at a five percent interest rate, by taking over a part of its debt. The money would be used to give a special dividend to shareholders.
  • An agreement to raise the TAC rate (a payout to Yahoo on each search query) to 85 percent from its former offer of 70 percent, for three years, and to 75 percent after that.
  • A plan, unclear as to specifics, to spin off Yahoo’s Asian assets, with money going to shareholders.
  • Icahn would get control of the rest of the company [and likely merge it with AOL or MySpace].
  • One or two current Yahoo board members could possibly stay on.