Take a look-see at this nice “cheat sheet” from Citi Investment Research’s Internet analyst Mark Mahaney for Yahoo’s fourth-quarter earnings tomorrow.

It includes “negative,” neutral” and “positive” scenarios for results.

Mahaney’s estimates are more on the positive end, with $1.4 billion in net revenue and earnings of 13 cents a share, although many are expecting worse, along with weak guidance going forward.

(And here is a link to Mahaney’s entire report.)

Only Yahoo (YHOO) knows at this point, but here is the helpful chart until then (click on it to make it larger):

In the late 1990s, during the height of the bubble of Web 1.0, there was a poolside charity auction at an Industry Standard conference for a variety of items donated by Web luminaries.

A tie from John Doerr, the right to push eBay CEO Meg Whitman in the pool and also the little black dress that then-CEO Katrina Garnett of CrossWorlds Software had worn and made famous in a Richard Avedon-shot ad for the company.

I am blanking on the person who bought the dress, but what was most interesting about that item was that the same person kept upping his own price, and went several rounds bidding against himself before winning the prize for a lot of money.

It was amusing at the time, a symbol of a very frothy time indeed.

Today is not that time, so I was a bit perplexed at why Microsoft (MSFT) would top its own bid and raise its $31-per-share offer for Yahoo (YHOO) to $34 a share, as suggested by Citigroup (C) analyst Mark Mahaney yesterday.

There seem to be no other rivals and not much has changed since the software giant made its unsolicited offer at the start of February, except for time passing.

Of course, the only reason to do so then is to get the deal done sooner than later and perhaps the number was a public message to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer of that fact (as I said before, I am sure there are plenty of private messages too).

And while I am in the camp that Yahoo, well run, is probably worth a whole lot more (see this post I did at the start of this slog) than even $34–although perhaps not the $40 that Yahoo claimed last week–it’s still a matter of actually getting Microsoft to pay it by bidding against itself.

As I saw back in the roaring ’90s, it could happen. The question is: What will it take to get Microsoft to do it?

My guess if it happens: Sheer boredom and the cost of wasted time during which rival Google (GOOG) keeps chugging along and a distracted Microsoft and Yahoo do not.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Finally.

But, I am sorry to say, probably much too late.

Still, it was nice to see a relatively bold statement from Yahoo (YHOO) leadership yesterday about its growth prospects and plans, a clearer statement of purpose it would have been much, much nicer to see a year ago.

And the assessment of Yahoo executives, who filed documents with regulators and will take its show on the road to visit shareholders this week?

No surprises for 2008 off guidance (whew!), strong gains in revenue and cash flow for 2009 and 2010 and a resulting share price closer to $40, $9 above the original $31 a share–the cash-and-stock offer is actually now worth about $29.50–offered by Microsoft (MSFT).

Yahoo had to do this, times being what they are–with the troubled Internet portal with the sterling brand name fighting off efforts by the software giant to buy it in an unsolicited bid. Thus, the prone Yahoo stood up for itself for reasons that look an awful lot like it was prettying itself up for the inevitable sale.

The goal? To justify its initial rejection of Microsoft, signal a decent quarter to deny the software giant a reason to drop its price or even exit and, most of all, to get an even better acquisition price, as prospects for alternatives dwindle.

So far, Microsoft has showed no indication that it would budge on price and some execs there even worry that the decline of Yahoo’s business is more significant than is apparent and Microsoft is paying too much.

Yahoo disagreed yesterday, outlining a blue-sky outlook for its future that is, of course, all about whether the current management could execute to reach very lofty goals. (See this Wall Street Journal chart.)

Looking over its estimates, I would say Yahoo’s glass is half-full in its happy display and video ad estimates and half-empty in its projections in the search arena, where Google (GOOG) dominates with increasing power. And it is all predicated on the fact that Yahoo must also streamline its costs.

An analyst, Mark Mahaney of Citi Investment Research, quoted in a Wall Street Journal article about the Yahoo numbers said it best: “Those are not easy numbers. We think it’s the most likely outcome that Microsoft buys Yahoo, and at a higher price than $31.”

(The Journal article also raises the uphappy prospect that the Alibaba Group, which Yahoo owns a 39% stake in, could use a sale to Microsoft to extricate itself from Yahoo’s arms, taking away one of the more attractive assets of Yahoo from the deal.)