Since you brought up the topic so many times...

Here is my 2 cents.

Granted that yahoo does not have many choices and Yang would be attacked by the share holders. Even the alliance with Google probably is not a good strategy in the long run. But you also have to understand that Ballmer would be under tremendous pressure as well. Think about it. He has to totally transform MS to challenge Google and he has no way to backward. Do you notice the stock performance of MS in recent years? And that's why he was so eager to buy Yahoo in the first place..