Yahoo Inc said Jerry Yang will step down as chief executive as soon as the board finds a replacement, sending shares up 4 percent on hopes the departure would clear the way for a deal with Microsoft.
Yang — who will return to his former role as Chief Yahoo, focusing on strategy and technology — tried to carve an independent strategy for Yahoo and was blamed when Microsoft Corp walked away from an offer to buy Yahoo earlier this year…
Yahoo’s months-long discussions with Time Warner Inc about combining with its AOL unit — as yet another way to boost Yahoo’s earnings — have also failed to produce a deal.
“The company is in desperate need of change and this is clearly one way to do it,” said Ross Sandler, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, adding that Microsoft could enter the picture again. “Jerry was the roadblock for the last deal getting done,” he said.
Yang has consistently said that he would sell the company for the right price.
Microsoft declined to comment.
Any crystal ball owners who care to chart the future for Yahoo?
What I think they ought to do is go to work running the company.
If you sell during a depression you are asking to get bleeped.
I don’t see any reason anyone with brains would buy them or AWOL.
I also don’t see any reason they can’t continue to show a profit if that is what they focus on.
I don’t think Microsoft is in a position to buy them anymore… Certainly not at the $30 a share price they were talking about last year…
“Chief Yahoo”? Is that like “head nut-job”?
Yang is an idiot. Passed up $30/share while the economy is collapsing. The shareholders should stone him.
Anything with less than a hundred zeros on it is a bargain to get that IP.
The deal is long dead. MS has moved on and aren’t going back. Yahoo will eventually be bought by some media company.
Yahoo! is now Whoopity-do-who-cares?
Even at a reduced price (say $20/share) which would be a premium over the current $12 price, MSFT would be stupid to proceed with the deal now.
MSFT has piles of cash, which should allow them to ride out the credit crunch and make the appropriate investments in R&D that other companies can’t. And, who knows, maybe they’ll fix Vista, or least Windows 7 won’t suck so bad.
Personally, I feel that just about anyone but Microsoft would be a better partner or owner.
Most of us who use Yahoo on a daily basis can’t stand Microsoft’s similar (and usually inferior) offerings; if we’d wanted buggy and/or slow Microsoft webmail, services, messenger, widgets, portals, etc., we’d already be using them.
My guess would be that Microsoft would buy Yahoo, integrate their search just by keeping the name, and get rid of everything else, forcing present Yahoo users where we never wanted to be in the first place.
Please, anyone but Microsoft!
The minute MS buys this company I for one will discontinue my web/domain/email/messenger account and though I’m sure that won’t ruin them, I’m also certain that I won’t be the only one.
Yahoo sold there souls to the devil a long time ago with the proliferation of malware with all of the business partners they got associated with.
Yang Yanked !!! Yahoo! Says Ballmer !!!
Yahoo and Microsoft deserve each other. I pity their share holders.
I don’t how he failed so epically. I smell some BS wall street games that have nothing to do with facts. Oh well, that’s what happens when you stand up to the monopolies.
Shoulda sold to MS. Hell, everyone, everywhere should sell to MS.
About F!@#ing time!
I remember back in the boom Yahoo had a PE of 1500. Now next years PE is 25. It still has a huge PE compared to most Co’s now trading at PE’s in the low teens.
Yahoo is worth about 7 bucks a share.
I still would not buy it at that price. It’s just another portal that is losing market share in search every year to google.
Bottom line. Jerry should have sold any day before another has passed over the last 10 years.
About time the board made a move.
I think the smart thing for yahoo would be to create a quality niche product. Selling out to another company would be foolish at this point. Instead of trying to compete with google, yahoo should try and get some devs back and create something for themselves.