or

d) All of the above.

Yahoo can't just sit there and do nothing, unless it wants its stock to be . So it seems to have three options:

Option No. 1: Yahoo buys AOL. What that does for either party in the long run is a little unclear. It's more like a frog that's about to be eaten by a snake and puffs itself up so it can't be easily swallowed. But all you end up with is a bruised, puffy frog.

Option No. 2: Microsoft just buys the parts of Yahoo it likes (search and advertising) leaving ... what? Yahoo 360? Yahoo has a massive online audience -- , per Comscore -- but without ads they're stuck relying on someone else (i.e., Microsoft or Google) to help them monetize it. That's not pretty.