There it was again–like the gnarly ghost of Christmas past–in the Los Angeles Times this week. But this time Lloyd Braun wasn’t going to take it anymore. The object of his ire was dropped right in the middle of a blog post about how Yahoo was “reversing its Hollywoodification” at its Santa Monica media unit offices. The piece also included old allegations from a devastating story in November of 2005 about Braun, which made him look like a digital version of Ari Gold from “Entourage.” Unfortunately, as BoomTown has found out, the bulk of those juicy anecdotes about him don’t actually check out. And therein lies a complex tale that still reverberates at Yahoo today.

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While layoffs have become all too common across tech and this country, today’s at Yahoo feel a little worse, coming after 18 unceasing months of painful changes and stumbles at the troubled Internet icon. As previously reported by BoomTown, about 10 percent of Yahoo’s workforce–1,500–are expected to get their walking papers, starting this morning. I have gotten more than a dozen impassioned emails from Yahoo employees, some of whom are there and some who have left, this week alone–all of whom truly care for the company, in spite of obvious anger.

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With Yahoo board Chairman Roy Bostock reportedly assuring investors and others that the company will have a CEO in place by the end of the year, it seems prudent for BoomTown to initiate an official Yahoo CEO Countdown.

After all, this column had a 100-Day No-Sacred-Cows Vision Quest to mark the time that Jerry Yang said he needed to give Yahoo a top-to-bottom look-see when he took over last summer as CEO.

So here’s today’s update: No Peter Chernin and a lot of thorny issues for other candidates.

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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.

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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.

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Weaker results? Check.

Guidance going forward weaker still? Check.

Layoffs? Check.

Economy sucks? Double check!

Nonetheless, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said he “remained optimistic” about Yahoo and was going to “get fit” and power through its obvious troubles.

Get this guy over to the McCain campaign, pronto!

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Here is the official press release from Yahoo (YHOO) on its third-quarter results:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Yahoo! Reports Third Quarter 2008 Financial Results Revenues–$1,786 Million
Operating Income–$70 Million
Operating Income Before Depreciation, Amortization, and Stock-Based Compensation Expense–$410 Million

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Who let the dogs in at Yahoo?

It wasn’t BoomTown, for sure.

But it was another bad day for the troubled Internet company’s stock. By the day’s end, Yahoo’s shares had dropped to $11.75, down 90 cents or just over 7 percent.

Which means Yahoo has officially dropped down a rabbit hole and is headed to parts unknown.

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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.

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Once burnt, twice shy?

I suppose that’s the reason Microsoft is not loaded for bear and headed back down to Sunnyvale to make another play for Yahoo right now.

Not even after Jerry Yang orchestrated activist Carl Icahn’s defenestration by inviting him on the board at Yahoo, where he will be 100 percent silenced.

Not even after the stranger-than-fiction shareholder miscount (oops–we thought no meant yes!).

Not even after Yahoo stock’s consistent flirting-with-the-teens price.

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Oh, BoomTown loves a delicious irony.

Kevin Johnson–who yesterday announced he was leaving his job as president of Platform and Services Division at Microsoft to become CEO of the network infrastructure company, Juniper Networks–was the point person on the software giant’s failed bid to acquire Yahoo.

Unfortunately, Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang rejected him and the rest of the Microsoft team over and over again in a very public fashion.

But who will be Johnson’s most immediate Internet neighbor be when he takes up residence, presumably at Juniper’s Sunnyvale, California, headquarters at 1194 North Mathilda Ave.?

Um, Yang!

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When sources at Microsoft last week told BoomTown that it was going to use Carl Icahn as a kind of messenger for a new ad search proposal, I thought: Uh-oh.

And tonight, like clockwork, Yahoo rejected Microsoft’s latest bid to buy its search and ad search business, which was delivered in conjunction with the billionaire activist investor, who is waging a proxy fight against the company.

Why? Well, it’s kind of like sending Pepé Le Pew to a garden party.

Sources tell me the bid included a $20 billion ad search revenue guarantee over 10 years, as well as other small improvements on Microsoft’s previous proposal.

Still, Yahoo turned up its nose at it.

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It looks like Facebook will definitely be moving from its funky multi-building setup in downtown Palo Alto, Ca. to a centralized campus in Silicon Valley, said several sources.

The high-profile social networking company–which has been undergoing a major managerial shift of late as it matures from its startup status to that of a more established Web player–has been growing quickly to almost 600 employees today from a couple hundred last year.

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Company in crisis? Employees morale plummeting? Shareholders in revolt? Stock slumping? Barbarians at the gate?

The perfect time to get out the Rubik’s Cube for yet another Yahoo reorganization!

BoomTown now has the outline of the likely sweeping management changes at Yahoo, to be announced next week by the troubled Internet company.

The reorg, which will drastically change the structure of management, explains a lot about the spate of recent departures by top execs at the company.

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Recently, BoomTown, along with a passel of press, was invited to an outreach dinner, set to be held on June 9 at a San Francisco venue, with some top Yahoo execs.

This was somewhat of a big deal, given the typically cave-dwelling mentality of the company in recent days, due to the drama of the Microsoft takeover bid that has jacked Yahoo’s typically skittish approach to press relations up to dangerously shy levels.

Then the dinner was canceled last week suddenly, with organizers blaming scheduling issues.

That move set tongues wagging at Yahoo’s Sunnyvale HQ, of course, and sources inside the company began to pepper BoomTown with two key theories.

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