This is all about foreplay, as far as I can see. Microsoft is hard for Yahoo! but pretending that it's not that aroused by the ISP, and Yahoo! is playing prick tease by rejecting Microsoft's advances, when in reality it is actually starting to get turned on by the offer, although it is not yet prepared to roll over and submit. Which, all means that Microsoft will come back with a revised offer/s and Yahoo! will (eventually) accept.