The past 24 hours have been thoroughly intriguing. It hasn’t been very long since Yahoo and Microsoft ceased their deeply fouled rendezvous with a reversal from Redmond. And though Yahoo seems to have staved off a shareholder mutiny in post-prod, at least for the short term, it is now forced to contend with a purportedly peeved Carl C. Icahn.

As many have now learned, the billionaire investor now claims himself as a shareholder of the Sunnyvale-based Web giant. And in this newfound role, he strongly suggests to the Yahoo board that they reconsider a purchase by Microsoft. (Semi-official word from Microsoft is that the company has “moved on” from its buyout attempt.)

Now, we heard yesterday from Yahoo’s chairman, Roy Bostock, as to the company’s aversion to Icahn’s suggestive hostility play. Yet in the hours following Yahoo’s initial volley, word has also escaped the CEO’s desk, according to Dawn Kawamoto of CNET News, intended to update the executive and working classes at the company as to his own thoughts about the week’s unexpected developments. Naturally, Jerry writes mostly in the collective mindset of “we.” As in, “what’s best for us to do,” not, “what’s best for me to do.”

In reading Mr Yang’s response to Icahn’s quite explicit letter (whose openness seems a bit refreshing, given Microsoft and Yahoo’s elusiveness and general passive aggressiveness in their correspondences of the last few months, no?), one might be forgiven in thinking that Yang is playing a propagandist. And not a very good one. He mentions to the broad employee base of Yahoo to disregard rumors and speculation and to continue to do “what we do best.” Over and over again. Odd? Odd.

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