Today's Outrage: Raw Deal for Yahoo! Investors

Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) CEO Jerry Yang is about to learn a lesson in timing.

After four wasted months vainly hoping that antitrust regulators would let Yahoo! team with Google(GOOG Quote) in an online search ad deal, Yang is back in talks with Microsoft(MSFT Quote).

So we're back where we were in April -- with one big difference: Yahoo! shares are now available for half the price.

Yahoo! traded as high as $28.67 back when Microsoft was pursuing Yahoo! earlier in the year and is now at $14.46, even after a bump today on the news that Yang is ready to talk with Microsoft again.

The last time I wrote about Yahoo! I made the point that Microsoft's bid set the bogey for the amount of shareholder value Yang & Co. need to create if they insist on going it alone. Since Microsoft had offered to pay $33 a share, Yahoo! investors should expect no less.

They'll be lucky to get that now.