Microsoft/Yahoo! Soap Opera to run and run?

Season One was played out on our screens back in spring, with speculation reaching fever-pitch: was Microsoft about to buy out Yahoo!?

The summer saw Season Two, with a shorter run: perhaps the arrival of activist investor Carl Icahn--and two of his nominees--on Yahoo!'s board would allow Microsoft to purchase just the search division of the Internet company?

It seems that Season Three will be back this autumn though: Mithras Capital Partners, who own a 0.14% stake in Yahoo! have proposed a new plan.
According to Reuters, the group has suggested that Microsoft act now while share prices are low to buy Yahoo! for 22 dollars a share. 

That's a lot less than the 31 dollars that were on the table back in Febuary, but represents a 74% premium on the current Yahoo! share price of around 13 dollars.

Mithras' reasoning is that Microsoft can buy up all of Yahoo! before getting rid of the businesses it's not interested in--mostly Yahoo!'s Asian holdings and non-search businesses, leaving the core search features intact.

All told, Mithras calculate that this would lead to Microsoft effectively buying Yahoo!'s search business for around 10.3 billion dollars, two billion cheaper than it would have been able to achieve in the summer.

Neither Microsoft nor Yahoo! have commented on the idea, but Mithras Capital is keen to move the deal forward despite the latter's proposed partnerships with Google (currently held up by regulatory conerns) and negotiations with AOL-Time Warner.

> Reuters: Investor proposes Microsoft buy Yahoo for $22 per share