Someone Still Wants What Yahoo!'s Got

SAN FRANCISCO -- Remember when it was only the every-other-week talk of a buyout by Microsoft(MSFT) that could lift Yahoo!(YHOO) shares?

It's time to welcome another sparkplug.

Yahoo!'s stock jumped more than 6% in recent trading to $11.42 after The Wall Street Journal's online edition reported that former AOL Chief Executive Jon Miller has been trying to raise money to buy all or a part of Yahoo!.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the WSJ said Miller had been talking to private equity investors and sovereign wealth funds for months to generate funds for a deal worth around $20 or $22 a share.

Such a transaction, the article says, would involve raising about $28 billion to $30 billion for a purchase of the whole company. Sources "close" to Yahoo! expressed "deep skepticism" that Miller could raise enough money, considering the reluctance of banks to commit to any significant lending in recent weeks.

But if you're a Yahoo! shareholder, that's not really the point, is it?

Whether this -- or any -- deal comes about or not, Yahoo! investors have just been told by somebody that isn't Microsoft that their company, which is struggling mightily in the face of its own missteps and a global economic downturn, has abundant value waiting to be unlocked.

Over the longer term, how it gets unlocked, whether it be by the Miller-led investor group, Microsoft or a new trail-blazing CEO at Yahoo!, doesn't matter much. Assuming the interest by Miller is real, Yahoo! has now been officially verified by another third part as cheap at under $12 a share.