Yahoo! rejected Google deal before Microsoft's bid

It is always easy to stand alone, until someone else wants to take your freedom. According to Reuters, "Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) executives dismissed a search-advertising deal with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) due to antitrust concerns, one day before Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) made its takeover offer earlier this year."

Odd. Yahoo! turned to Google almost immediately after the takeover offer from Redmond. What a rapid change of heart. It is yet another piece of evidence that Yahoo! management is fickle and has been willing to do whatever it would take to stay independent.

The news raises two issues. The first is that many reports say Google has cooled to the idea of providing search services to Yahoo. Perhaps the largest search company sees now that it was only being used as leverage against Microsoft. It also indicates that Google may simply let a Yahoo! deal die.

The news also supports the Microsoft opinion that a tie-up between the No.1 and No.2 search engine companies might be viewed by the U.S. government as anti-competitive. Google and Yahoo! together could lock up the market.

For Yahoo!, it is yet another in a series of moves that makes its management and board look like buffoons.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter.