Daily Debrief: What's up with Yahoo? Video

Daily Debrief: What's up with Yahoo? Video Transcript

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>> Welcome to the CNET News Daily Debrief. I am Dan Farber and I am here with Don Kumamoto [phonetic] and it has been kind of slow week because we've had the Olympics and then we've got the Conventions going on now which have been quite interesting and entertaining. And I wanted to really talk to you about a subject that was very prominent over this summer but it seems to have jumped off the map a little bit which is Yahoo. And in August 1st they had the meeting and Carl Icahn was put on the Board and a couple other people, but what happened since then?

>> Yes, it's been, you know, fairly quite since Frank Biondi and John Chekov [phonetic] have been on the board but, you know, in terms of their stock price, it hasn't been too quite there. It has -- it's gone below where it was trading last week with pre-Microsoft's offer, and then also it's nearing its 52-week low right now.

>> Now, are they distinct from anyone else? I mean, are their stocks very similar -- still suffering especially in this economy?

>> Yes, you know, the broader market is yes, everybody is getting a bit hammered, and so all the boats ride with the tides as they say. But, nonetheless, you know, I think Yahoo investors might wondering, well, since Microsoft left, you know, what are the catalysts on the horizon that kind of make me help, you know, bring a little life back to the stock of, you know, the absence of Microsoft.

>> So, Microsoft is totally out of the picture? Are they not coming back to do that kind of deal?

>> The investors believed that to be. Like last week, like I said that the stock went below where it was trading before Microsoft made its offer.

>> Which was $19--

>> $19.18, and last week it got as little as $19.10. So, you know, analysts had said that is a sure sign that, you know, all the premiums that have been put into the deal has vanished as well as the investors.

>> Now, one of the issues that kicked off Microsoft is the fact that Yahoo did a deal for advertising with Google. Now that Google deal is coming under scrutiny, I just saw that the Canadian government is taking a look at it. So, what is the status of the Google/Yahoo tie-up?

>> Well, the DOJ, you know, their three months grace period that Yahoo had said, you know, that they are gonna hold off in putting it into action with Google, you know, it was coming up. Next month will be the three-month period and, you know, Yahoo will be making its decision to move forward or not, you know, answer in any kind of comments from the DOJ. And even if the DOJ were to say, "Hey, you know, all signs are a go, go ahead and go for it". You know, Wall Street is saying that it may not necessarily give a pop to the stock that, you know, there may be some, a little bit of movement you know, in response but, you know anything traumatic, don't count on it.

>> Now, it seems to me the only thing that will give a pop to the stock were if Yahoo were successful in its product strategy, which is to say that there are numbers in terms of selling advertising, their product strategy. I know that they have got a hack, they are coming up in September which is to say that they are focusing on building a search infrastructure that other people can use. Build your own search engine basically, and you know, it is questionable whether that will be a catalyst to be able to help Yahoo build more share because Google still seems to be running away with it.

>> And then also to, you know, even with the monthly matrix that come out from Nielsen and whoever in terms of, you know, the search performance and also, you know, like into the traffic, you know, that one data point is not gonna be, you know, a guarantee that that's gonna give it a lot of lift to the stock, you know, unless the results are just, you know, just overwhelming in terms of any kind of market shared gains that Yahoo can get.

>> Yes, so it's a public company, it's basically quarter to quarter, how are they doing, and if they do well then people's impressions of Yahoo and it's management will change. But so far, people still question whether the board and the people running the company still, you know, have their hands on the wheel.

>> Right, and their quarter, the third quarter is not gonna end till the end of September. So, you know, with several ways to get a really good visibility in terms of any kind of changes with their fundamentals. So, you know, like the DOJ is happening next month, you know, the end of the quarter happens next month. They have also, I guess, the advertising management platform to see how that kind of does. So, these are, you know, just very small things that -- these are things that analysts say they are not expecting any kind of huge shifts.

>> Yeah, I mean it is really a challenge for a company like Yahoo because people mostly talk about the problems that the company has, as opposed to where they are succeeding. They have a half a billion users and a lot of big areas they are growing, but we'll have to see how this next quarter turns out. Well, thanks Don.

>> Sure, thank very much.

>> I've been speaking with Don Kumamoto on the subject of Yahoo for the Daily Debrief. In CNET News, I'm Dan Farber, thanks for watching. ^M00:05:25 [ Music ]