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Glacial-paced decision making left Yahoo in a position where Microsoft could sweep in with its bid, argues tech pundit Robert X. Cringely.

Blame Mark Cuban, Cringely said in his latest piece on the Microsoft-Yahoo deal. The Broadcast.com buy that set Cuban up as a billionaire also had an impact on Yahoo's management culture.

"Where Yahoo used to shoot from the hip, post-Broadcast.com the company became a model of hard-nosed business analysis, which also meant they couldn't make up their minds. Business development decisions at Yahoo can take months or years and every deal is required to be the antithesis of Broadcast.com," Cringely continued.

The same Mark Cuban, or an executive with similar stature and boldness (names in the comments, please, we'd like to know who else there is), may be what Yahoo needs now in Cringely's opinion. Daring Fireball called for a Steve Jobs-type leader. But with Microsoft looming large, it may be too late even for that.

More about Yahoo's thoughts on the Microsoft offer may be known as soon as today. TechCrunch cited sources who indicated a special board meeting will take place today at Yahoo to discuss the deal.

"There are only two options left. Accept the offer in principal, and try to increase the price with no negotiating leverage at all, or do a deal with Google to outsource search advertising and, likely, search itself," Mike Arrington wrote.