Here is the full statement from Yahoo, released tonight, about the new proposal from Microsoft and activist investor Carl Icahn, who is waging a proxy fight against Yahoo:

Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company, confirmed today that it has rejected a joint proposal from Microsoft Corporation and Carl Icahn for a complex restructuring of Yahoo! that would include the acquisition of Yahoo!’s search business by Microsoft.

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Microsoft’s not the only one backing billionaire investor Carl Icahn in his quest to unseat Yahoo’s leadership and board–major Yahoo investor Gordon Crawford told Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang in a face-to-face meeting last week that he was seriously considering voting against Yahoo in the looming proxy fight.

The troubled meeting that took place last Tuesday in Los Angeles between Capital Research Global Investors’ Crawford and Yang–accompanied by three Yahoo board members–could be seen as a portent of what is to come at the company’s annual meeting on August 1.

And those signs are definitely not good for Yahoo’s current leaders.

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Like the zombies in “Night of the Living Dead” who will not die, the notion of a big, sloppy deal for Microsoft to buy Yahoo is revived yet again in an article in The Wall Street Journal today.

Unfortunately for both Yahoo and Microsoft, it mostly serves to point out once again just how messy and pathetic the proceedings have been and continues to be.

But, as to the central idea, that Microsoft is aching to do a multi-part deal with various partners that would render Yahoo asunder, BoomTown is altogether dubious that this will ever come to pass.

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So exactly when will Microsoft and Yahoo really start talking again?

Much sooner than later, if investors have their way.

While the pair have not had any substantive talks as yet, despite reports they had, I would expect pressure from those shareholders (if not a dose of sanity in the face of the Google juggernaut) will bring them to the table within the next week.

While the software giant has no interest in buying all of the Internet portal, under a scenario being suggested to Microsoft by major Yahoo shareholders, a more substantial search deal could effectively give Microsoft control over Yahoo.

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One might have hoped that the Apple iPhone 3G media Hypestar that descended on the tech news arena would have been able to drown out the irksome bickering that has seemingly become a daily occurrence between billionaire investor Carl Icahn and Yahoo via dueling public letters.

But no! And, unless Microsoft mercifully steps in and forks over $34 a share to rebid for all of Yahoo, it’s likely this playground-level of fighting will go on until August 1.

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Break out the sedatives, because Carl Icahn is getting mighty tetchy with Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and the board of directors of the troubled Internet company!

In yet another letter to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock, the ever-grumpier billionaire investor, who is waging a proxy fight against Yahoo and seeking to oust Yang and crew, he stepped up the volume to Crazy Eddie levels.

It’s almost too juicy to require translation, as the veins practically pop out in Icahn’s letter from all the agita he seems to be experiencing over this botched takeover.

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Throughout this new series of developments in the Yahoo takeover circus, Microsoft has been unusually quiet about billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s efforts to take over Yahoo’s board via a proxy fight and then turn around and make a deal to sell the company to the software giant.

But will that last, especially considering a letter that Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock wrote yesterday in response to Icahn’s missive about launching his bombs at Yahoo’s top brass?

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BoomTown’s most favorite part of the Yahoo takeover circus?

The dueling letters, of course! How the lovely practice of missives has fallen out of favor, as soulless emails have grown in use.

Well, not in the land of hostile takeovers!

So here’s our decoding of billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s thankfully brief letter to Yahoo’s Chairman Roy Bostock, informing Yahoo that he begins bombing in five minutes.

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Off with the Yahoo CEO’s head!
OK, maybe not so much, at least today.
Indeed, according to many sources, Jerry Yang’s head still sits squarely on his neck.
And, moreover, his job as CEO has not been usurped by Yahoo (YHOO) Chairman Roy Bostock, who was allegedly–as one rumor went–authorized by Yahoo’s board, instead of Yang, to restart [...]

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Here’s what a top-notch source at Yahoo joked to me tonight, after Microsoft walked away from its unsolicited takeover bid to acquire the long-troubled Internet giant.

“Google is now officially our best friend.”

Oh no.

Instantly, an image popped into my brain–that of the slithery Kaa singing “Trust in Me (The Python Song)” to Mowgli from the Disney classic animated film, “The Jungle Book.”

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After today’s events, I guess you could say Yahoo and Microsoft tried, holding a series of meetings that ended up proving exactly how incompatible the companies were.

Kind of like Oscar and Felix, but not funny in any way at all.

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So why is Yahoo’s board holding out for a higher price than Microsoft wants to offer to raise it?

According to sources close to Yahoo, one of the more important reasons Yahoo wants a higher price has a lot to do with worries about the domination of the email and communications market if a merger with Microsoft took place and the threat of regulatory action that would force the companies to divest those assets.

Sources said that Yahoo wants a large cushion in case the government finds the combination of Yahoo Mail and Hotmail too much.

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Well, there’s one niggling deal off the desk of Northwest Airlines Chairman Roy Bostock–Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Northwest (NWA) finally agreed to merge after three months of tiresome back-and-forth wrangling.

Sound familiar?
Bostock (pictured here)–apparently, the hardest working man in U.S. corporate board rooms–also happens to be the chairman of Yahoo (YHOO), which is in [...]

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Hurry up and wait!
New key date to put on your Yahoo-Microsoft takeover schedule: April 22, 2008, at 5 p.m. EDT/2 p.m. PDT.
That’s the time of Yahoo’s (YHOO) first-quarter earnings call, which will be essentially where the rubber meets the road in the ongoing battle between the two companies.
Barring a raise in price by Microsoft [...]

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