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The Sunnyvale, Calif., media giant saw its stock slip $1.77 to $34.63 after Smith Barney Citigroup analyst Lanny Baker cut his rating to hold from buy. Baker, citing the company's rich price-to-cash-flow estimate, said he made the move after the stock passed his price target. Yahoo! is up 63% in just three months.
[sfgate.com...]
Shares of Emeryville, Calif.-based Ask Jeeves closed at $35.68, down $3.35, or 8.6 percent, on the Nasdaq Stock Market.MSN's engine, which industry watchers didn't expect would come online until early next year, will compete with established search engines from Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Ask Jeeves.
[reuters.com...]
"Our primary area of concern remains Yahoo's search relationship with Microsoft's MSN property, although this risk has not changed recently and our downgrade stands separate from this factor," Baker wrote in that note.
heheh, I guess the analyst didn't try it out. :)
Yahoo seems pretty strong. Not as much glamour as Google, but certainly nimble enough to dodge any threat MS can pose. Overture's Local Match product is something that MS may stick with, as it's a great way of promoting their real estate channels.
Even more than Google, Yahoo must be relieved that MSN isn't in a psotion to be a competitor this year.
I think they are too. Yahoo has shown more good improvements lately than bad, imho. I don't think the investors have to worry about them; they are way ahead of the game.
Anybody know if Ask Jeeves can take that kind of punishment and still keep standing?
Google has the advantage of "do no evil". This is a brilliant marketing approach.
Basically, as long as Google can be on par or slightly better than Microsoft, most people will probably want to use Google's results.
MS won't be able to do the same thing they did with IE against netscape, cause the doj will absolutely *freak*.
Google has the advantage of "do no evil". This is a brilliant marketing approach.
But very difficult to maintain post IPO
As someone involved in the industry, and not involved in these companies' stocks -- I can only laugh a bit now. There is no way MSN's current search technology could hold pace with Yahoo/Google/Ask right now.
With the negative reaction to Site Match (might Y! ditch it or change the per click billing?) and the loss of OV revenue from MSN syndication, would Y! still be profitable? Didn't Overture revenues account for most of Y!'s profits?
I think G is still in the drivers seat at this point and post MSN launch. Y! is the loser post MSN. If Ask could get a user base and increase the DB size, they could rock as they seem to have some of the best search technology out there.
If MSN and all their money can't come up with something close to Teoma (wasn't that was a pretty small company with nowhere near the resources of MSN prior to being acquired by Ask?) how much of a difference will it make when they go live?
I see this more as a war between Yahoo and MSN instead of Google being in the mix.
I certainly agree that this is how it should be. But when MS comes out and says specifically that they want to compete with Google, it's tough not to have G in the mix.
Still, I cannot help but think that this entire situation will only help Google to lose a little of it's thunder.
[zdnet.com.com...]
Big move :)
Eric agreed but "news" is all and MS has a lot more money and skillbase than Google has ever had or will do.
Last I heard Google had hired as many PhDs as Microsoft.
It appears that Rogers and Yahoo are making a first joint move...
Yeah, old news. They inked that deal six months ago in January. Was noted here at WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com] when it happened.
skibum makes great points about this affecting Yahoo stocks in the future. Puts them in a bind, knowing the downturn that's coming, about whether Yahoo should 86 the ppc component of their SiteMatch.
Will dropping the ppc component result in less revenue? Probably. Will going straight PFI be a moneymaker? Not sure. Anybody think PFI as a significant income generator is dead?
Right, they signed the deal in January, but the first email with service offers as a Rogers’s subscriber I received yesterday.
Obviously, Yahoo's revenue and earnings are going to take a hit when MSN drops Overtue. And, when MSN rolls out a new search engine (and correspondng ad/pr campaign), Yahoo's stock will drop as shareholders take their gains.
With Sarbanes-Oxley, most analysts are very limited to the amount of information that they can get from a company and with a PE over 150 and a 30% rise in the stocks price over the last 45 days, I think it's pretty easy to see thatt he stock needs to cool.
I still says its a good company with a very promising outlook.
Thanks
Yahoo's stock is over valued and solely based upon future potential. The analysts seem to have been slow to realize that M$ was inevitably going to damage that potential in the future via both search and email and should have built a much bigger drop into the price a year ago.
The analysts seem to have only seen the play when it is almost over, surely their job was to see it before most of us? Maybe some WW members need to be offered consultancy positions with some brokerage houses.....LOL!
M$ will do considerable damage to Yahoo, it might deliver the final blow to Ask. If anyone thinks Google is going to come out of this smelling of roses they are living a dream. Google might be the biggest gross financial loser of them all.
Think about Internet growth and where all the new users will be heading once M$ has its play active.
Getting a webmaster to switch from Google is difficult, getting a typical tech savvy user to switch will not be easy....but, so what?
The majority of the market is in the non-tech users and the new users, and they are very much up for grabs.
To get them you will need billions to spend on advertising and a mouse trap that truly works.....I dunno, something like an OS maybe?
M$ is holding the trump cards, primarily control of the OS and browser, a very popular free email system, a huge online community, an ISP offering that is growing, and last but not least a huge amount of cash to spend on acquisitions & advertising.
Microsoft's second wind is about to come (next 3 years). They have competition, but I don't seriously see how you can bet against them taking a good percentage of the market for themselves.
How many of you have clients cutting back in Overture? How many people are finding that clients are not interested in ranking well on Yahoo? Anyone sign up for Yahoo/SBC DSL? How popular are the International Yahoo's.
If I got to my trusty Boston Consulting Group (BCG)matrix, I see a well financed company with a portfolio of stars. Terry Semel seems to have this company going in the right direction in what is a very fast growing market.
Worst case scenario, ownin Yahoo, MSN, and eventually Google gives me a reason to follow the stocks. Helps during high level sales calls when it's obvious that you follow the companies leading the industry.
As for Looksmart, I agree with SkiBum. As most of us have discovered, without MSN, conversion rates are pathetic. Add in a weak brand name, bland technology, poor relationships, and it does not seem like they have much of a future. Of course, they are so small, they could always bet the farm on some risky idea, hit a home run and be the darling of wall street. All that being said, I'd rather play Texas Hold em than buy LookSmart.
Anyone see any interesting internet advertising related stocks aside from the big three?
Anyone see any interesting internet advertising related stocks aside from the big three?
Maybe AOL, maybe aQuantive or whoever owns Ave A & the Atlas Suite/GoToast, DoubleClick with Performics has some potential, Linkshare if they IPO'd might be a good bet.
I'd expect the sector as a whole to be positive for a while. Search is going to be hot and rich media will be hot, the stuff in the middle, regular old banners aren't going to be worth much.
