It has absolutely nothing to do with politics. Microsoft offered to acquire Yahoo for $44.6 billion dollars in 2008 [1]. Jerry* Yang turned them down claiming the offer "substantially undervalued" the company. 8 years later they sold to Verizon for $5 billion [2].

[1] https://www.cnet.com/news/yahoo-rejects-microsofts-bid/

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/07/25/yahoo-s...

*I incorrectly said Andrew Yang initially, my apologies for my bad memory and any confusion it may have caused. Thank you Hexcles for the correction.

I think that's Jerry Yang.

facepalm You are correct, I will update. That's what I get for trying to remember names from 12 years ago.

loll i was like "oh no what did Andrew Yang do"... as an asian and non american i was a casual fan of his but kinda knew he had no chance in the primaries. still.. maybe someday.. he's young

Ah hence the asterisk- I keep looking for a footnote!

The Alibaba and Yahoo Japan stakes were included in Microsoft’s bid