From the acquirer side: Maybe they wanted to put some excess cash to work. Cash is important when you don't have it. But once you have it, it's a dead asset t

From the acquirer side: Maybe they wanted to put some excess cash to work. Cash is important when you don't have it. But once you have it, it's a dead asset that produces no meaningful return. Excess cash is important as an option on future opportunity. Apparently, Yahoo found their opportunity. Or, maybe they didn't want to revise EPS estimates down. An extra $1B worth of $YHOO out in the marketplace would dilutes EPS by about 3% until the revenue starts flowing. From the acquiree side: Opportunity vs sure thing + choice of opportunities. $1.1B in $YAHOO today will be worth something else tomorrow. Maybe more. Maybe less. Maybe $0. Cash is guaranteed to go down in value at the rate of inflation. But not more. And they get to decide on some other opportunity(ies) to go after.