Yahoo! CEO pining after Microsoft?

Since Google's decision to pull the plug on a search-ad partnership with Yahoo! that would have given Yahoo! major new revenue but that raised antitrust concerns, CEO Jerry Yang has expressed interest in renewing its conversation with Microsoft.

During a moderated "conversation" at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, Yang said late Wednesday that, "To this day, I have to say that the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo!. I don't think that is a bad idea at all".

He said: "At the right price, whatever the price is, we are willing to sell the company. We were ready to negotiate, we wanted to negotiate a deal, and we felt that we weren't that far apart. But at the end of the day, they [Microsoft] withdrew and they since have been very clear about not wanting to buy the company."

The "right price" caused the original deal at $33 per share to fall through, causing anger to many stockholders and employees.

If Microsoft was to do the deal today, it would doubtlessly be less than the original offer.

Original article: Jilted Yang desperate to deal? from CNET News.com