Now let’s return from the land of fatuous deal schemes and half-baked plots to buy Yahoo and get to the most critical issue facing its board right now: Finding a new CEO to replace outgoing leader Jerry Yang.

Sources tell BoomTown that board Chairman Roy Bostock has been asserting a new CEO will be named by the new year.

Only 28 more shopping days until management clarity!

Well, maybe not so much, given there is no formal search committee. But there is a list and a pending AOL deal, so let’s hope for a miracle on 701 First Avenue in Sunnyvale!

Read More »

Last week, Bloomberg reported that Yahoo and AOL were still chit-chatting about a possible deal–non-news, actually, given the pair have never stopped talking.

Nonetheless, it set off yet another flurry of excitement on Wall Street that a deal to merge the two troubled Internet companies was imminent.

But you might have a quicker time watching grass grow, according to numerous sources BoomTown has talked to over the last week about exactly where the AOL-Yahoo deal is.

And that would be, as various people told me: “tabled,” “back-burnered” and, my personal favorite, “like trying to catch a falling knife.”

Read More »

While they’re not as significant as the potentially 6,000 layoffs at Sun Microsystems, several sources at Yahoo said that the previously announced layoffs at the Internet giant are set to take effect on Dec. 10.

On Oct. 21, as part of its third-quarter earnings call, Yahoo CEO confirmed it would cut its workforce by “at least” 10 percent of its global workforce–or about 1,400 to 1,500.

But, as much as some critics would like it, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is not leaving.

Read More »

Today, Yahoo shares plummeted almost nine percent to close at $10.34, off $1.01, in yet another freefall that has all sorts of disturbing implications for the troubled Internet company.

Yahoo’s market cap is off another billion dollars to $14.3 billion right now, and that has a big impact on everything from its talks to merge with AOL to the morale of its employees to an ability to pull up before it’s too late.

Read More »

Last week–in a clear sign that BoomTown has spent way too much face time in front of the idiot box–I compared the endless bickering back-and-forth between Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to the annoying push-me-pull-you antics of Ross and Rachel on the television show, “Friends.”

But the continuing discussions–oh, yes, there have been more this week–between Yahoo and AOL execs over the merger of their struggling online companies have their own TV comparison: The never-ending roundelay on “The View.”

In other words: Blah, blah, blah. Chitter-chatter. Pointless arguing. Chin-scratching. More blah, blah. More chatter. Blah.

Read More »

If there is a corporate merger brewing, there inevitably is always a code name for each company involved.

In the case of Yahoo’s merger talks with AOL, which are ongoing, the pair seem to be aiming for a tony image, using the names of two upscale institutions of higher education: Yale University and Amherst College.

Read More »

Here’s my favorite quote from former Microsoft exec Jeff Dossett from a phone interview he gave to BoomTown this afternoon, after his appointment as Yahoo’s new U.S. Audience head:

“Where others see risk, I see opportunity,” said the man who has climbed Mount Everest twice. “We have this great Web asset … and, from here on out, it is all about execution.”

You can tell from the gumption in this ain’t-no-mountain-high-enough sentiment that Dossett just got to Yahoo and sees a challenge at the troubled Internet giant where others see, well, a long-running quagmire.

Read More »

Aside from upcoming layoffs, it seemed as if Yahoo had stanched the flow of major execs from the company.

Not so, it seems, as sources with knowledge of the situation confirm that the two top execs of the troubled Internet company’s media unit will be announcing their departures later this week.

SVP Scott Moore, who runs Yahoo’s media group out of its offices in Santa Monica, Calif., and also Al Warms, who came to Yahoo from its BuzzTracker acquisition last year, will both be leaving, although it is not clear what their plans are.

Read More »

Are Google and Yahoo thinking of walking away from their controversial search advertising deal, as reported in an amusingly hedged report in The Wall Street Journal last night?

I would bet my Barry Manilow record collection, based on rumblings on Wednesday among those close to the case, that Google is a key whispery source here, sending a very public signal to the Justice Department that it would walk if pushed too far and leave regulators with egg on their faces for not letting the search giant help the struggling Yahoo.

Read More »

So–at this point–BoomTown feels it is not untoward in asking: What the heck is taking so long for Yahoo and AOL to decide whether or not to merge their struggling operations?

And, after talking to a dozen sources, inside and outside both companies, this week, I can tell you there is definitely one nagging problem: They’re just not that into each other.

Make no mistake, though, these arranged marriage negotiations are grudgingly advanced. Oh, they are talking, and how, now engaged in what another source describes as “very serious due diligence.”

Read More »

While many would like to see Microsoft reignite its bid for Yahoo, and as much as even good reporters insinuated that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said yesterday in an appearance that he was interested in reopening merger talks, the company will not and he is not.

Here is what is true, based on talking to numerous sources.

Read More »

Today, BoomTown will be spending the whole day–complete with lunch!–at Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ to visit various and sundry execs in charge of a wide range of products.

Why? Well, as interested as I am in all of Yahoo’s always messy corporate and stock machinations, it’s just as important to get a handle on exactly what actual products and services the company is working on to get out of its quandary.

Because, while Yahoo is still talking about merging with AOL, it needs to have other options.

Read More »

While a lot of analysts and pundits have suggested that Microsoft would or should surely jump into the fray–now that AOL and Yahoo are talking merger more seriously, and especially since Yahoo’s stock has dropped in the $14 range–don’t count on it.

In fact, in what has to be the most Zen-like approach it has ever had, sources close to Microsoft’s thinking actually hope that the talks to combine the Time Warner unit and Yahoo will work out, which could give the software giant another shot at nabbing the search business from the pair.

Read More »

As has been copiously reported here and all over, Yahoo and AOL have been engaged in never-ending talks about a possible deal to merge their flagging Internet businesses.

Now, sources tell me, the circle of executives at both companies interfacing with each other has been widened, for purposes of due diligence.

That includes Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, who is in New York this week–where AOL parent, Time Warner, is located–to meet once again with its CEO, Jeff Bewkes, to see if they can actually complete the merger.

Now, all this frantic activity does not mean a deal will necessarily be struck.

But it is just this kind of ramped-up blabbery that has many at both companies predicting that a deal will go through, sooner or later, as soon as Time Warner and Yahoo can agree on a price.

Read More »

Back in the first season of “Saturday Night Live,” one running catchphrase uttered by Chevy Chase would always crack the then-12-year-old BoomTown right up: “This breaking news just in: Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.”

It’s that same kind of extreme déjà vu I feel with the continuing drip-drip-drip of the news-less news that Time Warner’s AOL and Yahoo are still talking about a merger.

Read More »