Yahoo Inc. has rejected Microsoft’s latest attempt to buy its online search operations in a “take or leave it” proposal that Yahoo said would have dismantled its Internet franchise. Microsoft packaged its latest offer with activist investor Carl Icahn.

“This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo’s stockholders in mind,” Yahoo board chairman Roy Bostock said in a release.

“While this type of erratic and unpredictable behaviour is consistent with what we have come to expect from Microsoft, we will not be bludgeoned into a transaction that is not in the best interests of our stockholders.”

Bostock called the offer “ludicrous,” saying it was crafted without input from Yahoo and weighted mightily in Microsoft’s favor.