Nothing Like Changing Your Mindset to Change Your Reality, Eh Yahoo?

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And lest there be any doubt that Yahoo’s (YHOO) exploratory search-outsourcing alliance with Google (GOOG) is just that, consider this: Yahoo opposed such a partnership on Jan. 30–the day before Microsoft (MSFT) announced its bid for the company.

According to documents unsealed yesterday as part of a shareholder complaint against Yahoo, the company’s leadership felt an outsourcing deal with Google would be detrimental to Yahoo’s long-term push to become a “must buy” for advertisers.

These documents, prepared for a Jan. 30 all-hands meeting, anticipated the question of whether Yahoo would consider outsourcing search to Google. “We are focused on long-term value creation rather than short-term gains,” Yahoo said in response, adding that such a deal “may not take into account the longer-term impact on the competitive market if search becomes an effective monopoly.”

Sadly, Yahoo forgot to add a very important caveat to this statement: “When you’re not facing a hostile buyout offer from Microsoft.” Because when you are, concerns about long-term value creation and harm to the competitive market apparently cease to be an issue.