Former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller is looking for $30 billion from investors to buy all or part of the Web search engine company, according to The Wall Street Journal Tuesday. The news caused Yahoo's shares to rise 7 percent before tumbling back 3 percent Wednesday morning.

But with the economy in a recession, finding those dollars will be a challenge. Miller's plan, according to the Journal, is to purchase the entire company $20 to $22 a share, or $28 billion to $30 billion. That's considerably less than Microsoft's $47.5 billion offer in May, which was rejected as too low by its then-CEO Jerry Yang. (See Five Reasons Why Microsoft Should Still Buy Yahoo )

There is something attractive about this beleaguered Internet property that lures savvy businessmen. For Miller, it may be about the challenge: He was brought into AOL in 2002, a particularly low point in the company's history, and left as it was turning around. He foresaw that AOL, which had been the leading provider of dial-up Internet access, would need to change direction to compete in the world of high-speed (broadband) connections. Under his direction, AOL allowed its subscribers to dwindle, gave content away at no charge, and worked at recouping lost revenue by selling online advertising.