Everyone at the top of the Microsoft corporate machine gets humiliated in public eventually, and today it was the turn of Steve Ballmer at the Hungarian School of Economy.

And in true Microsoft style, Ballmer took it like a man cowered like a little girl behind his desk after an onslaught of lets face it - balls of protein - were chucked at him.

You could see a combination of looks on his face when he realized what was happening, looks that will be familar to any Microsoft board members around Ballmer when it was announced he wouldn’t be getting a box full of Yahoo by next day delivery.

At least he recovered - which was more than can be said for Mr. Gates, although at one point in the video he looks ready to break into his infamous “Developers, developers, developers, developers” speech from the Windows 95 launch - something from which, 13 years on, he probably wouldn’t recover from. It seems that when times get tough, its just automatic for Ballmer to sweat enough water to fill small borehole and instantly form 5 stress induced stomach ulcers by pacing backwards and forwards on stage.

Yahoo today responded to yesterday’s letter from Microsoft inviting Yahoo to join the boys up in Redmond. The letter rejects Microsoft’s offer for the web services giant unless more money is offered.

In a summary of their response Yahoo said:

We are open to all alternatives that maximize stockholder value. To be clear, this includes a transaction with Microsoft if it represents a price that fully recognizes the value of Yahoo! on a standalone basis and to Microsoft, is superior to our other alternatives, and provides certainty of value and certainty of closing. Lastly, we are steadfast in our commitment to choosing a path that maximizes stockholder value and we will not allow you or anyone else to acquire the company for anything less than its full value.

The key phrase in this summary is “includes a transaction.. if it represents a price that fully recognizes the value of Yahoo!”. So come on Microsoft, more money please..