Today, Yahoo was set to begin the layoffs that have been rumored and announced on repeated occasions. That alone should have been reason enough for many of the Yahoos to discretely test the recruitment pool just in case. Microsoft's unsolicited bid to take over Yahoo! must have had the effect of an iron claw choking on the feelings of those not certain about their workplaces.

Add to that the fact that Silicon Valley recruiters have been ramping up their efforts to lure them away from their current working place and you'll get a picture of the desperate situation Yahoo! is in, without even being completely aware of it. Jerry Yang has repeatedly addressed his employees, assuring that their work is appreciated, and even Steve Ballmer, CEO at Microsoft, indirectly addressed them and underlined that in case the Sunnyvale-based company's board chooses to accept the bid, everything would be kept more or less the same.

Bruce Brown, a managing partner at executive search firm Daversa Partners, told Dow Jones that: "Ninety percent of our clients are asking for Yahoo talent, particularly in the last two weeks." The positions most valued are those of software developers, project managers, user interface developers, mobile application developers and executives.

Most of the recruiting companies have not disclosed who their clients are, but supposedly Google, Oracle and Saleforce.com are not among them, DJ reports. The only one that was available for comment on the issue, Google simply stated that it did not change its recruitment practices.

However, Brown wanted to highlight that high ranked executives that, before the Microsoft bid, were out of reach are now actually spending a lot of time getting to know their clients. If there's a merge to be made, it might find Yahoo! contributing the technology and the brand alone, employees long gone.