I mean when you think about it in terms of the mythical man month and the amount of entropy introduced with a merger its kind of interesting. Plus you have a bunch of processes going on here - consolidation, shift of resource etc. which generally dont win tech wars.
Google has already publicly stated that they do not want the acquisition to take place. Maybe they wouldn't wish a "fate worse than death" on even their competitors. Maybe Google is waiting for Yahoo to sink to the point where Google could afford it.
Brings a whole new perspective on the phrase "Do no evil," doesn't it?
I am not sure google would be interested in buying Yahoo the same way intel wouldnt be interested in AMD. Always good to have an underperforming competitor to avoid being labelled as a bully or a monopoly!