November 20, 2008 by Simon King
It would seem that there’s just no let up in the misery at Yahoo. Not even a week after their CEO Jerry Yang announced he is stepping down, and with key staff and engineers continuing to jump ship at an alarming rate, their shares have fallen to a five year low.
The shares fell below $10 after Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corp again reiterated that Microsoft would not be seeking to buy any part of Yahoo. Microsoft had attempted a buyout of $33 dollars a share earlier in the year, which was turned down by Yang though it’s hard to see them doing the same now that their shares aren’t even a third of that value.
Ballmer has denied any intention to buy the ailing company once before recently. However, he apparently felt the need to re-state his position after news of Jerry Yang’s departure sent Yahoo’s share price up 12 per cent, as investors anticipated renewed interest from Microsoft.
The glimmer of hope for Yahoo is that Ballmer has not closed the door on the idea of some kind of partnership with Yahoo, describing the idea of the companies coming together in some sort of internet-search venture as ‘interesting.’ However, there are no talks currently in progress and no one is clear about the sort of shape that would take. Whoever ends up replacing Jerry Yang may have to think up a survival strategy that doesn’t involve Microsoft at all. Imagine that…
Related posts:
