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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of Internet portal Yahoo Inc. (NasdaqNM:YHOO - news) were halted shortly after the start of Nasdaq trade on Wednesday for pending news.
There was no indication that the news release would be about earnings.
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Possibly related, Yahoo unexpectedly pulled out of a Merrill Lynch investment conference that begins today. And last week, they added a poison pill for shareholders in order to discourage a hostile takeover bid. (See [dailynews.yahoo.com...] )
That is quite a story. When anyone hears what the deal is with Yahoo - please let us know. Reuters doesn't seem to care as much.
STOCKWATCH Yahoo downgraded to 'market outperform' by Goldman Sachs [europeaninvestor.com]
-G
The msg board on Yahoo is filled with rumors like Koogle or Yang resigning, them buying a company like Real (or Napster!), getting bought by Disney, MSFT, Viacom, etc. Because of this long delay, I don't think it's as simple as an earnings warning. But it's anyone's guess right now. I heard that they've planned a press conference for later today, but an exact time was not given.
We've touched on that here before, back when Eisner sacked GO in under 48 hours. We've also noted the poison pill being a probable last-minute defense because someone (Eisner?) was circling for the kill. To me, all signs point to Disney right now, but I've heard nothing definitive.
That's been a rumor for a long time, and yes that would be the worst thing that could happen. From everything I have read, Yahoo doesn't want to be taken over by anyone...
-G
The Financial Times reported Wednesday that Yahoo!chief executive Tim Koogle will step down. [cnnfn.cnn.com]
Speculative at best. Apparently, Koogle will be on CNBC (live) sometime this evening.
NASDAQ did that for its own protection, I'll bet. In a bear market, the last thing they need is a poorly-timed, blockbuster release of bad news by one of its bellweather stocks.
-G
