No wonder Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang seemed a touch churlish in his response to Microsoft's highest offer of $33 per share for Yahoo. According to documents helpfully released by a Delaware judge in response to a shareholder complaint, "Microsoft had offered to buy the Internet pioneer for about $40 per share in January 2007, only to be rebuffed," reports AP.
But as Jerry must know, shares (like the price of your house) can go down as well as up. Yahoo's shares fell from about $30 to about $20 between the two Microsoft offers, having peaked at $34 in October.