AdAge reports on how in Jerry Yang's lemons-into-lemonade scenario, Microsoft's unsolicited bid for his company has fired up the ranks:

"The Yahoo co-founder and CEO told 400 attendees at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's first conference that Microsoft's unsolicited bid for Yahoo 'in many ways has been a galvanizing event for all of us at Yahoo.' The company is more focused than ever on creating a more open, efficient ad platform, Mr. Yang and Yahoo President Sue Decker told an IAB audience."

Yang went on to outline the company's new strategy, which may be a little late, to open up to third-party developers. "The idea is for third parties to be able to use our tools as easily as we use them ourselves," Yang said in the article. In particular, he was referring to Apex, the company's internally developed advertiser-publisher exchange.

In our view, Yahoo remains a top-tier technology company—particularly in advertising, e-mail, and mobile—that lost its focus. This merger could turn out to be hugely complicated, but Yahoo does offer plenty of value.