Can you sell a company for $4.83-billion and still be disappointed?

Yes. Yes you can. Read on . . .

CNN Money — It’s official: Yahoo’s days as an independent company are over.

Verizon has agreed to pay $4.83 billion for Yahoo (YHOO, Tech30), the companies said before markets opened Monday. The sale completes Yahoo’s evolution from influential search pioneer and web portal juggernaut to, in the end, a once-dominant brand that lost its way.

Parties as diverse as Warren Buffett and The Daily Mail were interested in buying Yahoo. But after a sale process that dragged on for months, Verizon, long viewed as the frontrunner, is walking away with Yahoo’s more than one billion monthly active users.

Yahoo was offered over $50-million in 2008 but was holding out for $57-billion.

Forbes called the acquisition “the saddest $5-billion dollar deal in tech history.”

Listen, I’m no financial expert. Far from it. Plus, I haven’t run the numbers nor consulted with the Shoe: Untied Financial Office to check. However, when you turn down $50-billion and end up selling for $4.8-billion that’s not good, amirite? My girlfriend on her cell phone calculator giant brain says that 4.8 is 9.6% of 50, so yikes. Guess the negotiating geniuses over at Yahoo just didn’t know when to cut and run, did they?

Geniuses schmeniuses.