First he made a bold move to acquire Yahoo! for $42B+ in January (balls!)
Then he said take it or leave it (strong negotiation, yeah!)
Then he said he won’t raise the price (consistent message, still good)
Then he raised the price (uh-oh, he’s flip-flop’ing. it killed kerry, remember?)
Then he left abruptly (ah, maybe he woke up!)
Then he said, we can really do it alone, exploring alternatives (should we believe him?)
Then he won’t answer Carl Icahn’s call (maybe he means it??)
Then he said, wait, wait, please come back Jerry. I’m sorry, I won’t buy all of Yahoo. I just really need this little bitty thing called Search. (rejoice in the Yang and Icahn Residences)

So I guess the conclusion so far is:
- He really doesn’t think MSFT will ever catch up to GOOG on its own
- He’s making it up as he goes
- He doesn’t know how to negotiate

Jerry Yang. You lucky dog. Ballmer may be a more capable CEO than you, but it’s better to be lucky than good!