He talked to News Corp. about possibly fusing with MySpace. He met with Time Warner about an AOL merger. He created an employee severance package that critics described as a poison pill. He sought a partnership with Google.

It was the possibility of a deal with Google that Ballmer cited as the straw that broke the camel's back and soured Microsoft on acquiring Yahoo.

Later, in June, Yahoo did end up striking a deal to run Google search ads and split the revenue, but intense scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice over anti-trust concerns prompted Google to back out this week.

Except for recent rumors that Yahoo might acquire AOL -- rumors that have again lost steam -- Yang finds himself without many options for a quick solution to Yahoo's woes. Microsoft is now no longer interested in acquiring Yahoo, and the Google partnership has collapsed.

As he has maintained since May, Yang told Battelle that the perception that he tried to sabotage the Microsoft bid to keep Yahoo independent is incorrect. At the time Microsoft walked away, Yahoo was still willing to negotiate and felt they were getting closer to an agreement.