Daily Debrief: After Google, what's next for Yahoo? Video

Daily Debrief: After Google, what's next for Yahoo? Video Transcript

[ Music ] ^M00:00:03

>> Earlier today, Google announced its withdrawal from a proposed ad deal with Yahoo leaving Yahoo, well, up a creek without a paddle. Well, Jerry, what now? Welcome to the CNET News Daily Debrief. I'm Charles Cooper here with my colleague Dawn Kawamoto. Briefly Dawn, can you run down why the deal fell apart.

>> Well, the DOJ indicated that they were gonna go ahead and block this deal and so Google decided they didn't want a legal fight on their hands and decided to walk.

>> Was there any indication that the parties concerned might have been able to negotiate an agreement that would have satisfied the government?

>> I think both companies probably had hoped and they were under the impression like they are working towards making some progress. There had been two delays in terms of the extensions getting bumped back at least twice. And so that's an indication there were some, you know movement of foot, but obviously there seems to be something that bugged down from October 21, which was one of the last deadlines that had gotten pushed back.

>> This comes at a really tough juncture for Yahoo. The company stock is what trading near its all time low.

>> Yes, running its five-year low right now and -- but you know to be, you know fair, I mean the whole market have taken a huge tank...

>> True enough, but...

>> But, yes.

>> Compared that with what late January, early February when Steve Ballmer said, we'll give you $31 a share.

>> Right that later got bumped up to 33 and Yahoo countered back with 37 and yes, so their stock is quite a distance from that right now.

>> So if not Google, what are Yahoo's options at this point?

>> Well it has, you know, three options. One is, you know it can just rely back to its three-year plan to improve its operations and hope that everything kind of comes to forition, which they had initially bled out to investors. They are in continual talks with AOL and whether or not something's gonna happen with that anytime soon as kind of anyone's guess right now. And obviously, there's always Microsoft, you know the white elephant in the room.

>> There is Microsoft.

>> And so, when...

>> If a deal look good at 31 bucks a share, it looks terrific at what $12 -- $13 a share.

>> Well, you know of course Yahoo's gonna wanna premium. This is not gonna wanna sell it. It's offered at 66 stock price, so you know maybe some analyst had said maybe $20 a share. You know, so...

>> C'mon 20 bucks, it's got a great franchise, but it's lot different from what the market was way back when.

>> And the thing is this like, you know -- although, Steve Ballmer had indicated you know that acquiring Yahoo Search business would be good for Yahoo's investors as well as for Microsoft's investors. Whether or not this is gonna kind of eventually lead to anything sometime soon, has yet to be seen, you know, it's been very quiet with it, you know, any kind of sense whether or not Microsoft's gonna come back into the game.

>> And Carl Icahn now is on the Board of Directors at Yahoo, so I would love to be a fly on the wall. Thanks Dawn. On behalf of CNET News, I'm Charles Cooper. ^M00:03:12 [ Music ]