…you are now facing a viable threat to your own long standing monopoly.  Not only is GOOG the king of search, but they are slowly encroaching on your home turf of software, navigation and operating systems.

Your original bold offer for YHOO was brilliant. I cheered your move then and even suggested that you be willing to pay up to $35 per share for the company in order to get the deal done.

Yes, that would have been overpaying, and in hindsight it would have been way overpaying, but hindsight is 20-20. You stuck to your guns, and now you get to reap the rewards.

That reward, if you are smart, will be to acquire a very valuable asset that can help you in your battle with GOOG.  While that battle may not seem like much now, it will be quite intense a few years from now.

GOOG is not going away. They are only getting stronger.

You must do the same. Buying YHOO will most definitely make you stronger, and I'm talking about the entire company, not just search. While it is convenient to think that buying search may be a cheaper and more targeted strategy, owning the entire company has benefits that will help you in the long-term.

Besides, taking the company in pieces could be quite messy. It is far better to keep the entity whole. YHOO traffic alone is worth something. Yes, the new Chief Yahoo could not figure out how to best monetize that value.

It will not be hard for your management team to extract value from this asset.

Go for it. The time to move is now. $15 per share sounds like a nice round number. Make the offer before the end of the year and the company is yours.

This article was written by Jamie Dlugosch, contributor to InvestorPlace.com. For more actionable insight like this, go to: www.InvestorPlace.com.