rogerd - 12:54 pm on Jul 18, 2008 (gmt 0)

Different shareholders have different priorities. Most bought the stock to turn a profit on it, not because they were emotionally attached to Yahoo or its management.

Whenever a sale opportunity comes along, shareholders have to decide whether hanging in for another few years will be a better deal for them than taking the current offer. I had some shares in a profitable and growing medical products company that I thought had fantastic potential over the next decade, and I was quite disappointed when the firm was acquired - despite the fact that the offer was a decent premium over recent share prices.

In Yahoo's case, a 30-40% premium combined with somewhat iffy future prospects may be appealing to current shareholders.

Unfortunately, shareholders often take a back seat to management in these deals. Entrenched management may reject good offers, or even accept a bad offer if their own employment contracts, buyouts, golden parachutes, etc. are sweet enough.