If you were to do a search on Yahoo right now for, oh I don’t know, “rock bottom”, the first result may be: yahoo.com
TechCrunch is reporting that Yahoo’s stock is hovering at $10.34/share as of today. To put that in perspective, I have an original news clipping when Yahoo went public and the stock opened at around $14/share…that was in 1996. Of course, that doesn’t take into account stock splitting and such, but still a pretty grave indicator of things all the same.
Michael Arrington points the finger of blame squarely at CEO Jerry Yang who ultimately has to go. He’s had his chance and blew it. Yahoo desperately needs vision and direction which Yang can no longer provide. Combine this dismal leadership with the recent Yahoo/Google ad deal falling through and the company is in dire straits.
Is this to say Yahoo is going to suddenly disappear? I don’t think so. Yahoo is an enormous brand with a loyal base of followers. When you factor in photo-sharing site Flickr and bookmarking site del.icio.us into the mix that’s a lot of Yahoo users for someone to scoop up at a bargain basement price. Microsoft could make a second bid for the company and may not even have to go into debt to do it this time around. Of course, we may all be taken by surprise if some other purchaser steps out of the shadows. Who knows, maybe Rupert Murdoch is interested in Yahoo after buying social site MySpace. With online ad revenue forecasted to decline in 2009 though, even a guy like Murdoch may keep his distance.
All this being said, let’s not forget the biggest factor in all this: the market crash. As one TechCrunch commenter pointed out, everything is tanking right now:
So, in a sense, Yahoo is in good company.
Bob Starr, code named Starbuck, is a geek with a passion for film journalism and technology. You can follow Bob on Twitter (
