Yahoo Shares Trading Below Pre-Microsoft Offer Price
Hollywood Newsroom is now Buzz Newsroom! Visit and bookmark our new site. Buzz is bigger and better, including sports, world news, gadgets and the entertainment news that you're used to. Same staff, just more stuff! Why Fark, Drudge and Huffington when you can Buzz!?It may be because Microsoft appears to have shifted its attention from Jerry Yang to Jerry Seinfeld. Or it may be that investors are feeling pessimistic as Yahoo’s search business continues to weaken. But Yahoo shares on Thursday closed at their lowest point since Microsoft made public its $44.6 billion, or $33 a share, for the Internet portal on February 1. (After months of negotiations, Microsoft withdrew its offer to buy Yahoo.)
Yahoo shares ended Thursday at $19.11, down 6 cents. It was the second day in a row that the company’s stock ended below its $19.18 close on January 31, just before the Microsoft bid.
Yahoo’s share performance underscores the magnitude of the challenges faced by Mr. Yang and his team. On Thursday, Web measuring firm comScore reported that Yahoo’s share of the search market in the United States declined to 20.5 percent in July from 20.9 percent in June. In that period, Google’s market share rose by the same amount to 61.9 percent.
There are some signs that the company is finally able to turn its attention back to business and away from the turmoil of the merger negotiations. In recent weeks, the news about Yahoo has largely been about new products, rather than about corporate upheaval.
- from NYTImes