"Jerry Yang has had a tough nine months," said veteran tech journalist John Battelle, in his introduction of the weary Yahoo CEO in a keynote discussion at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.
Under pretty awkward circumstances -- on the day that Google pulled out of a multi-billion-dollar search deal with Yahoo -- Jerry Yang showed up and took questions at the conference. And it took all of 1 minute before Yang was asked the most pressing question on most investors' minds.
"What happened with the Microsoft deal?" Battelle asked.
"I think there is a perception that we would have done anything to avoid selling the company . . . The fact is, the idea of selling to Microsoft was something we'd known about and discussed. I don't think it's a bad idea at all. I think at the right price, we were willing to sell the company. We were ready to negotiate, and at the end of the day, they've been very clear about not wanting to buy the company."
And as for Google's decision to pull out of the search deal, Yang would mainly only say that he was disappointed.
"Why did Google pull out? You'll have to ask them. It's certainly disappointing to us that they didn't want to defend the deal," Yang said.
Asked if he had advanced warning of Google's decision, Yang said "Those press releases don't write themselves."
And as for rumors that Yahoo is in talks to buy AOL, Yang kept mum.
"I can't talk about that!" he said.
