GigaOM

The more Yahoo and Microsoft bicker in public and wage their war of words, the more Yahoo — at least as far as the inevitable merging of the two companies goes — loses out financially.

Mark S. Mahaney, Internet analyst at Citi, in a note to clients points out that shares of Yahoo are now trading at a 7 percent discount to the half-cash, half-stock offer from Microsoft. Furthermore, the stock is “now trading at a 13 percent discount to MSFT’s initial $31 offer, which we believe it is reasonable to assume would be re-calibrated.” And if that’s not enough, Yahoo is trading “at a 24 percent discount to a potential sweetened MSFT $34 offer,” Mahaney writes. We agree with him, more or less. Either way you look at it: A lack of other bidders/options basically leaves Yahoo not only (more than a) penny short, but also pound foolish.