Hello? Steve? It’s Jerry…Jerry Yang. Sure, I Can Hold Until You Stop Laughing…
by John Paczkowski
Posted on November 5, 2008 at 9:50 AM PT
Now that the pact Yahoo touted as superior to the acquisition of its search business by Microsoft is dead and buried, what will the company do for a growth plan?
Talk a good game–as it attempts to do–in its statement on the dissolution of the Google (GOOG) deal?
Going forward, Yahoo! plans to continue to provide the cutting-edge advances in products, platforms and services that the industry needs and expects, and intends to be the destination of choice for advertisers and publishers who want to reach one of the largest and most engaged populations of consumers on the Web.”
Or run tearfully into the arms of Microsoft (MSFT)? A now-debunked email quickly made the rounds on Wall Street this morning. “Jerry Yang has agreed to leave his post effective today and that YHOO is again in late-stage talks to sell the whole company to MSFT,” it claimed. “Deal is imminent and could be done by tonight. Price being mentioned is $17-$19.”
Sources close to Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft, however, vehemently deny this is the case, as BoomTown and others quickly debunked the rumors, blaming them on stock manipulators.
For the moment, the rumor mill might be the problem, because, as Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeff Lindsay notes, Yahoo doesn’t have many other options. “The only path really left for Yahoo at this point is to do a deal with Microsoft,” said Lindsay. “And the pressure on Microsoft to do something with Yahoo is even greater than it was last year.”
