One of Yahoo!'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) big shareholders wants the company to sell itself to Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) ASAP for $22. And, it has a plan to make the deal work.

Mithras Capital does not own a big piece of Yahoo!, but it wants to help the portal firm to get a price well above where it trades today. According to Reuters, "Microsoft would unload Yahoo's Asian assets and non-search businesses, extract $3 billion worth of cost savings and receive $2.8 billion of tax benefits, meaning the software giant would pay $10.3 billion for Yahoo's search business."

If wishes were horses all the beggars would ride. Microsoft understands that Yahoo! is in distress as its share of the search market keeps dropping and display advertising revenue growth slows sharply due to a rough economy. Yahoo!'s stock is at $12.65 and has been dropping rapidly.

If Yahoo! reports a weak third quarter and revises its guidance for the fourth quarter and 2009 down, its shares could quickly move well under $10. Microsoft knows that. If it still wants to buy Yahoo! it may only have to wait a few weeks to get a much better deal.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.