Yahoo’s stock lay down like an overheated hound at the end of the dog days of August. Don’t look now, but they are bouncing back.
Yahoo Moving On Up The Stock Charts
Can’t see nothin’ in front of me
Can’t see nothin’ coming up behind
I make my way through this darkness
I can’t feel nothing but this chain that binds me
— The Boss doing, what else, The Rising
It may be too soon to call it a return to Internet glory, but Yahoo’s recent rise in its fortunes has been glorious. Yesterday’s close of $26.51 represented a 12.38 percent gain over the past month.
That period included a low of $22.52, Yahoo’s price on August 28. After drifting up and down through early September, Yahoo has been gaining nicely through the rest of the month to date.
Forbes cited several reasons contributing to the rise (The rise! Think of it!) of Yahoo:
Yahoo! has benefited from a confluence of events: new partnership deals, value investors looking for bargain-priced stocks and persistent rumors that the company is a takeover candidate.
Investors with an eye on the distant horizon were pleased to see Yahoo! announce a string of advertising-related deals: It bought ad networks Blue Lithium and Right Media, and it struck a new advertising arrangement with social networking company Bebo.
Forbes also cited a slowing tide of executives exiting from Yahoo as a sign of stability. But Yahoo did see a very recent executive departure in early September.
Other important folks below the corporate level have been departing. Valleywag noted the departure of two co-founders of Yahoo Pipes. One of them opted to join Google, and that can’t be a great sign for Yahoo’s idea incubator, Brickhouse.
Maybe it is just the return of takeover chatter, but it would be good for the Internet at large if Yahoo’s fortunes continue to rise. Competition between the major Internet players makes for much better products and services from those companies for their users.
