The Microsoft offer had to be dealt with. Whether Yang liked it or not, the $31 per share, $44.6 billion cash and stock bid represented a 62 percent premium for Yahoo shareholders when it was announced on Feb. 1.

Microsoft also made a compelling and brutally honest argument for fusing its Internet unit with Yahoo: It was the way to mount at least a credible challenge to Google, absolute ruler of search, the largest, most profitable and most important online ad market segment.

Thus began the tragicomic cat-and-mouse game between Microsoft and Yahoo that, surreally, lasts to this day.

We saw Yahoo's repeated rejections of Microsoft's attempts to acquire the company and, later, of buying only its search business.

Meanwhile, Yang made overtures towards seemingly anyone -- Google, News Corp., Disney, AOL -- who might be interested in a deal that would allow him to save face before his shareholders.