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Maybe Yahoo's deal with Microsoft was a smart move, after all.  RBC analyst Ross Sandler has stepped forward to say that it'll have a positive financial effect on Carol Bartz's company, boosting certain figures significantly above forecasted levels. 

According to Henry Blodget, Sandler wrote in a note to RBC clients, "We have taken an extensive look at Yahoo's cost base and believe that the company could expand EBITDA margins from current mid-30%'s to 49% over the next several years, well above the consensus margin assumption of 37.8% in 2011."

In fact, if Yahoo pulls off Sandler's improvement, it'll be have beaten that consensus margin assumption by a whopping 29.6 percent.  (And EBITDA is an acronym that stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization, in case you're wondering.)

So here's the number one reason why Sandler has so much faith in Yahoo: he thinks "the shift of search-related costs to MSFT per the partnership terms should allow the YHOO search EBITDA margin to drift to 85% (by 2011/2012)."

Anyway, Sandler gave Yahoo's shares, which are currently trading at $14.78 each, a price target of $19.