One of Yahoo Inc.'s largest shareholders, Ivory Investment Management LP, is urging the Internet company to pursue a sale of its search unit to Microsoft.

In a letter to the company's board, the investment firm proposed a deal Wednesday in which Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) would acquire Yahoo (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people )'s search engine and Yahoo would retain 80 percent of revenue generated by search queries on its own site.

Ivory said Yahoo could get about $15 billion from Microsoft for the search platform alone, a deal it said would give shareholders a value of $24 to $29 per share, or more than double Yahoo stock's closing share price Tuesday of $12.19.

Yahoo shares rose 62 cents, 5.1 percent, to $12.81 in morning trading Wednesday.

Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang said recently that he would resign, a response to shareholder discontent that brewed after Yahoo rebuffed a $47.5 billion takeover offer from Microsoft for the entire company. Before stepping down, Yang said he was still open to some kind of a deal with Microsoft, after antitrust concerns sank Yahoo's planned advertising partnership with Google Inc. (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people )

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said a takeover of Yahoo is off the table but has expressed interest in the company's search business.

In the letter Wednesday, Ivory took Yahoo's board to task for not seeking a deal with Microsoft more aggressively and accused the company of ignoring shareholder interests. The firm holds 21.4 million, or about 1.5 percent, of Yahoo's shares.

So, you just got laid off from the struggling portal. Congratulations.

Businessmen of the Year

China's Yang Yuanqing and American William Amelio pursue a different PC strategy for Lenovo, challenging mindsets and market dips along the way.

William Amelio and Yang Yuanqing

Forbes Asia's first such honorees from a Chinese company are actually not to be found in China in the normal course of business. Silicon Valley correspondent Rebecca Buckman did get lucky on her visit to the Beijing offices--Lenovo Group Chairman Yang Yuanqing was in China for a Wal-Mart conference and other company business. Usually he's in Raleigh, North Carolina, as Buckman's story that follows explains. ceo William Amelio can be anywhere: working out of his office in Singapore, jetting to a foreign locale or hunkering down in a hotel (as long as it has a gym). Such is the stuff of a modern technology concern, although Lenovo is clearly a special case.

In this year of crashing markets few companies are immune from the effects. Yang and Amelio now have something else to work through. But the record to date, including managing the absorption of a signature Western brand, bodes well for the future of a global company with Chinese characteristics. As tech analyst Ezra Gottheil says, "They're trying to pull something off in two years that takes most companies five or ten." And they're doing pretty well.