(May 4, 2008) - Yahoo founders Jerry Yang and David Filo received stupid advice from their investment bank advisers and blew their chance to close the deal with Microsoft as of this Sunday morning. Neither Yang nor Filo are experts on how to sell a company in a multi-billion dollar deal. They have relied on their investment bankers and advisers since the negotiations started with Microsoft. The difference between the offered price of $33 and the asking price of $40 per share is roughly $1.4b per share, so it 's not small potatoes.

Having said that, the winner in the stalled negotiations on Sunday morning was clearly Microsoft. Monday morning Yahoo! shares will tank. After many torturous and painful days, Yang will call Ballmer with his tail between his legs, and we will hear the news that Microsoft is acquiring Yahoo! at $34 per share. This will probably take less than a few weeks, maybe a month. Why? Who else will write a check for Yahoo! for that amount? Larry Ellison? No. IBM? No. Google is not even in the picture. So that's the news this Sunday morning.