Analyst calls Yang, Yahoo management "unrealistic and self-interested"

Bernstein analyst Charles Di Bona told clients Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang's letter to Microsoft Steve Ballmer and March 18 presentation to shareholders indicate he has lost touch with reality.

Investors are becoming increasingly skeptical and there appears to be growing concern that this view is both unrealistic and self-interested on the part of Yahoo's management. The Yahoo investor presentation cut no ice with investors. We saw the publication of Yahoo's Investor Presentation on March 18 as final confirmation that Yahoo's management and board had run out of ideas.

One close Microsoft watcher, Ina Fried of Beyond Binary, took Yang's letter to Ballmer differently. She writes that with the letter, Yang's objections to a Microsoft takeover shifted from philosophical to financial: "The most important message contained in the letter is that Yahoo is willing to sell at the right price."