Tuesday, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang sent out his second company-wide e-mail since Microsoft made its unsolicited $44.5 billion bid for Yahoo, a message that made it into an SEC filing Wednesday.

He said the same thing he said before: "No decisions have been made about Microsoft's proposal."

"The board, he said, "is focused on maximizing the value of Yahoo!'s tremendous assets for our shareholders. And it is going to take the time it needs to do it right."

Clinging to the pre-tsunami past of a few days ago, he said, "We won't let it distract us from pursuing our transformation strategy." Right.

He also said that "The board is thoughtfully evaluating a wide range of potential strategic alternatives in what is a complex and evolving landscape and we're hired top advisors to assist though the process."

The view may very well be different from inside but from outside Yahoo looks to have a narrowing range of options. In fact, not many at all.

There's no help on the horizon and it's looking increasing unlikely that Google and Yahoo could pull off an outsourcing deal that keeps Yahoo independent because of the antitrust laws.

Yahoo's only option seems to be to hold Microsoft up for more money.

UBS, for one, thinks Microsoft may have to sweeten its offer by three bucks to $34 a share to get the deal done.