Comments on: Yahoo shares touching on pre-Microsoft level

The Internet company's stock falls below $20 a share, coming within a breath away of where it traded prior to Redmond's failed buyout attempt.

[someguy999]

hmm... so there's discussion of a possible out for Yahoo via MS and stock raises by roughly 50%... discussions end and it lowers back down by that same 50% it increased. I'm not a financial/business wizard, but something tells me shareholders wanted the deal to go through.

Though I'm sure Yang will have other creative response, afterall he has his billions and doesn't mind going down with the ship if it turns into a "going down with the ship" vs. showing some humility and not running a public company via your personal ego.

[Penguinisto]

"...but something tells me _speculators_ wanted the deal to go through." - There, fixed that for you.

[Penguinisto]

So in other words, a move by Ballmer launches massive speculation, but once Ballmer gets his nose thwacked, the stock price returns to a point just a little higher than where it was before the buyout attempt began. Can't do much more than yawn in response...

[Kwasiowusu]

Penguinisto , sounds like I got burned in what deal? Why would anyone, especially an astute investor like me, put my money in a no-hope outfit like Yahoo? Yahoo has stock has been drifting south long before Microsoft appeared on the scene, and Yahoo stock has simply resumed its downward drift that it had, pre-Micosoft offer. Jerry Yang can keep dreaming that yahoo is worth $37 all he wants, its not gona make an iota of difference. Yahoo is headed to $12.

[Kwasiowusu]

In other words, Jerry Yang's pipe dream that yahoo stock is worth $37, is simply blowing hot air in the wind, and of no consequence whatsoever. The true value of Yahoo is what the market is prepared to pay for yahoo, which is vastly less than $37.
Like I have been saying for the past few weeks, expect Yahoo stock to hit the pre-Microsoft offer Low of $19.59 very soon. Thereafter, Yahoo stock is going down to trade sidweways and downwards, and drift down to $12 in the next few years.

[Penguinisto]

If wishes were fishes... but it sounds like you got burned in the deal - pity that. Maybe you should only invest long-term from now on until you can figure out how the whole day-trading thing works?

[ltonnews]

"The true value of Yahoo is what the market is prepared to pay for yahoo, which is vastly less than $37."

You mistakenly believe that the markets always fairly values shares in the short term rather than the long term. There is little evidence that short term pricing on the market means is accurate at all. Yang's $37 target price is a long term target. Not a short term. This reset back to what the value was back before the Microsoft bid is good since perhaps all the deal speculators will leave and folks can start priciing the company on its earnings and prospects as opposed to what Icahn or just some "give me the money now" folks wished the price to be.

If Yahoo can't execute after this Icahn greenmail is over then yeah the stock price will continue to slide. However, Yahoo was making money in the middle of all this. Probably will make money this quarter. They are still a bigger search and internet destination than Microsoft ( remember Microsoft was trying to buy Yahoo because they haven't made the internet business work successfully in how many billions of dollars of trying???? ) There was no evidence that Microsoft had a inciteful clue what they were doing. They had a backlogs of billions in the bank and were trying to buy their way into a business they haven't been able to get a foothold in competitively. That's not any better of a management strategy than Yahoo has been exhibiting the last couple of years. The only "win" was going to be for the folks who "cut and run" after the merger. The Microsoft stockholders would be out billions. The Yahoo long term stockholders really won't be all that much better off either.

Never going to get a accurate pricing on the market of yahoo as long as there are a large number of "cut and run" folks influencing the stock price.

[JCPayne]

So all the people that jumped onboard to get rich quick from aMicrosoft buyout have finally left the building? Good ridence now Yahoo can post another quarter about expectations like the 2nd quarter and watch them all come crawling back.

[Kwasiowusu]

Yahho's second quarter did nothing for the stock did it? It's still down to pre-Microsoft offer levels, despite Yahoo's second quarter isn't it? Anither results like that, and its simply going to keep drifting down, like its been doing for years.

[Penguinisto]

pretty much - expect wannabe day-traders who got burned to come crying and whining about how Yahoo is going to die or somesuch.

[JCPayne]

LOL This also means ICAHN spent a boatload of money trying to bulk up on Yahoo shares to force a merger and now---- his shares are worth less... HA he lost money..... lol

[someguy999]

I'm confused by the ICAHN shares worthless... its not about the price, its about the % which is the same today as it was yesterday. You do realize that he wasn't trying to make money off the deal but rather gaining more shares.

If you really think people are going to come crawling back to yahoo, you're the only one. it seems like 1-2 execs leave by the week. and that's just the execs, not to mention the masses that don't make the media.

[The_Decider]

Those execs that left are meaningless

[ltonnews]

"...You do realize that he wasn't trying to make money off the deal..."
ROTFLMAO. That's how Icahn makes money. The PC term is called "greenmail". The not so PC term is extortion, blackmail, and racketeering. Icahn's strategy is either make a large enough ruckus to get paid to "go away" or suck large amounts of money out of any company he can to acquire the company he has a stake in. In the latter case often the merged company chokes in the aftermath. Ichan doesn't care because at that point he will have dumped any long term interest in the merged entity. As long as there has been a massive transfer of funds from the aquiring's company's accounts to his, he is set. What Ichan was lusting after was not an opportunity to Yahoo but a back door the billions that Microsoft has in the bank. That is it. The "concern with yahoo management" is just a smokescreen. Ichan has no business insights. He explicitly admitted in a 60 Minutes interview that he is not a "manager". Ichan has not successfully run any large company for an extended period of time. (TWA? Dead, but managed to sell off to American Airlines. )

Frankly, Icahn as much as Yahoo management could just as easily be at fault for the string of execs leaving. Icahn has NO other management strategy other than the SELL out. He doesn't want to operate Yahoo.. just sell to Microsoft. Or chomp up into pieces and sell the whole thing to other folks. If selling in a position of weakness what is the likelihood that the company selling out to is going to keep the execs? ( It is lower. ) Silicon Valley... hostile takeovers usually don't work well.


Yahoo has certainly made a long strings of mistakes over he last couple of years. However, Icahn certainly isn't making things better. Right now he is just being disruptive just to be disruptive.