It's all starting to make sense now.<p>Carol Bartz and Jack Ma did not get along at all. She chewed him out in front of his underlings in Sunnyvale when they first met; and he never forgave her for that. Getting insulted in front of your underlings is a huge deal in many cultures.<p>If Bartz was still the CEO, she would have torpedoed any possible deal like this. So she had to go. The Board fired her to pave the way for Ma to put together a deal.<p>Ma says he'll be spending the next year in the US, "studying the market". Why the heck would he be wasting time here, when he already has a huge company to run in China, if he didn't intend on making a massive acquisition?<p>The next few months should be "interesting", if you're a Yahoo.