Yahoo shareholders have been on a roller coaster over the past six months. First there was a tremendous rise, then slowly but surely a steady fall back to earth as Microsoft walked away from the buyout bid that raised the price in the first place.

Today, the stock ticked up slightly on heavy trading after TechCrunch floated a rumor that Microsoft was still interested in acquiring the company, but for a lower price than initially offered.

We'll see if Jerry and Steve can get a deal done this time. Given the anger of shareholders on both sides for their inability to get a deal done, we could see a buyout (merger?) sooner rather than later -- with Yahoo shareholders (except Carl Icahn, natch), getting the short end of the stick.

More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:

• Predictiont:Yahoo!'s stock price to drop below $20 per share
• Prediction: Yahoo!'s stock price to climb to $26 per share
• Special Feature: Where are they now? The Industry Standard tracks down 10 dot-coms from the Web bubble of the late 1990s