Yahoo!: Bigger, Better After The Great Escape?

We have to wonder what Yahoo! is up to, after they turned down a buyout that was going to give them a 60% bonus over their market cap. Turning down the offer was one thing, but labeling it as "undervalued" leaves me with some expectations. Are they actually going to put feet under this claim, or are they just going to be content with the value they've gained from this arbitrage?

Enter company CEO, Jerry Yang:

Yang Breaks Silence on Microsoft Takeover - Techland | FORTUNE.com
Jerry Yang offers sneak peak of Yahoo’s future: Life! | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

It looks like they were indeed working on something. Yahoo claims it is on the verge of unveiling "a next generation user experience that unites its various services in a social context". The web portal is also announcing the opening up of its search engine results, so that webmasters everywhere can offer users more options from the Yahoo! SERP.

Now, we have to assume that these developments were in the works before Microsoft made their offer. Could the Microsoft offer have been a signal that they knew what was up? Probably. However, could it also be a sign that Microsoft not only knew about these developments, but knew that they would vault Yahoo! to the top of the Internet world? Was that the basis of Microsoft making a $44 billion wager on the value of Yahoo?

Very interesting questions, indeed, which none of us can answer until we actually see all of Yahoo's cards.