Introduction:
Yahoo Inc. in the last three months has been in the news, and the news has not been about investment in research and development (R&D), new products introduction and shareholders’ value creation strategy. On November 24, 2015, Standard and Poor’s (S&P), a credit-rating firm announced the cutting of Yahoo rating outlook to negative (BB+) from stable citing the decline in revenue growth and higher cost of attracting traffic to its website (CNBC, November 24, 2015). The rate cut will increase the cost of capital, reduce profit and reduce shareholders wealth.
On November 9, 2015, Reuter’s News reported the hiring of the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. The focus of the consulting firm was to assist with the reorganization of the company’s core business (Reuters, November 9, 2015). The decision was a surprise development to the shareholders in that the current management under the leadership of Ms. Marissa Meyer had been at the helms of Yahoo affairs for almost four years and had spent about $7 billion on R&D, Merger and Acquisition. The turnaround initiatives expected with Ms. Meyer’s appointment as the Chief Executive Officer has not come into being, for there has been a high turnover of senior executives. The board of directors and senior management has failed in their attempts to turn around the firm. Yahoo share price has declined year to date by 34% as of November 25, 2015, whereas its’ main competitors Facebook, Goggle, and Microsoft increased by 35%, 45%, and 16% respectively. This is despite the assertion made by the board of directors and management that they are “committed to shareholders value through sustained growth”. Table 1 Source – Google Finance Table 1 above compares the share price of Yahoo with its main competitors Facebook, Google, and Microsoft from Jan 2, 2015, through November 25, 2015.