Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer must be itching for a fight. The culture he built at Microsoft forces altercation, and taking its bid for Yahoo directly to shareholders would suit his style. He has hinted that if he gets no response from Yahoo’s board, he’d launch a proxy fight. But he’d be better off just walking away. Or seeming to. That’s the technique Oracle CEO Larry Ellison used on BEA. He walked away when the smaller software company refused his advances. After leaving BEA to twist in the stock market’s wind for a while, he returned and found it more pliant. Jerry Yang has frustrated Ballmer by playing hard to get. The move Ballmer might find unsatisfying, but most effective, would be to return the favour for a while.

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