Naturally, Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang says the company would be open to a new round of bidding, be it from Microsoft or other interests. The previous level set by Yang and his associates was $37 per share, but now he is offering little public guidance. Microsoft's $33 per share offer was certainly fair enough, or at least investors seemed to think so given the market's subsequent response.

Yahoo, the most-visited U.S. Web site, turned down a $33 a share offer from Microsoft, which withdrew its bid on May 3. Yahoo was cut to "sell" by Citigroup Inc. and ThinkPanmure LLC analysts today, and its stock dropped 15 percent. [....] Yahoo fell $4.30, the most in almost two years, to $24.37 at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have gained 4.8 percent this year. Yang, who co-founded Yahoo in 1995 with fellow Stanford University student David Filo, lost $232.7 million in the value of his Yahoo holdings today.

Many investors are non-too-thrilled either, and it would not be surprising to see even more lawsuits filed due to Yahoo! executives' rather poor handling of the situation. The company is already facing seven lawsuits related to the ordeal, and those were filed even before Microsoft issued the competitive $33 per share offer.

"I think it's pretty hard for the Yahoo board to turn down $33 when they've shown no ability to turn around their stock price," said Stuart Grant, managing director at Grant & Eisenhofer, a law firm that specializes in bringing investor lawsuits. "There's going to be breach of fiduciary duty lawsuits and I must tell you they are looking pretty good right now," he said.

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