Yahoo's desperate strategy blitz

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:08:17 -0700

Yahoo's big press event on Thursday was meant to "open the kimono" and give the media (and, by extension, the public and Yahoo stockholders) a peek into what the company has up its sleeve to rebound following the Microsoft deal debacle. After being offered $31 a share (and then $33 a share) by Microsoft management, YHOO has struggled -- it hasn't seen a $20 share price since mid-August.

The Los Angeles Times was tactful in its assessment that at this point. The company is pretty much going to be throwing everything at the proverbial wall to see what sticks. The LA Times notes that Yahoo plans a home page redesign, open music site to potentially include content from iTunes and Amazon, restructure its news site, continue pushing original content (like Tech Ticker), focus on mobile devices with its new Blueprint platform, and work on bringing widgets to television.

Yahoo has a lot of ground to make up with stockholders, whose confidence is shaken after what many feel was a mishandled opportunity from Microsoft. The smorgasbord of new directions, however, reeks of desperation, and one has to wonder whether the company really has a new direction or is simply grasping at any new trend passing it by.

Yesterday's market wasn't that impressed with the company's revelations either. While the stock was up, closing at $18.55 a share, the first time it's been over $18.50 all week, it's still far from the amount it was trading at while the Microsoft offer was still on the table.

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