Marissa Mayer gets mixed reviews from Wall Street and Old Media

Stockholders of Yahoo should love Marissa Mayer since the stock is up 13% over the past year.

Employees of Yahoo seem to love both her focused and demanding style at the same time.

Wall Street is giving her mixed reviews due to the recent Q2 earning release and lack of confidence in revenue guidance going forward. Yes, profits are up, yet sales are flat and are drifting lower.

The honeymoon is now over. Can Marissa Mayer save the day?

Tumblr cashes out with $1.1 billion from Yahoo!

After being rejected by Facebook seven years to buy its social network for $1 billion, Yahoo! patiently waited out it's next opportunity. Most patiently.

The next opportunity is called: Tumblr. Price: $1 billion, plus!

Reaction from the blog-sphere? It blew up with disappointment. WordPress registrations have soared. Yahoo! has promised not to "screw this up."

Think Billion$ wishes Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and her staff the best of luck with Tumblr.

Third Point LLC continues to hold Yahoo

Third Point LLC is the $9-billion hedge fund managed by billionaire and activist investment manager Dan Loeb. In his recent 13F filing with the SEC, Third Point, listed its three largest equity positions as: Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), American Insurance Group (AIG), and Apple Inc. (APPL). These three stocks account for nearly half of the Third Pointinvestment portfolio.

Thank you Marissa Mayer!

Thank you for what??? .... you dare blog!


Well where do we begin?


Thank you for NOT being Scott Thompson!


Thank you for NOT being Jerry Yang!


Thank you for NOT being several other complete bozo's that have been run in and out of the Yahoo! sand box executive suite over the past! ten! years!


Basically, we are saying: Thank you Yahoo! for NOT making a Yahoo!-like decision!

Has Mark Cuban Hedged His Facebook Position?

Has Mark Cuban Hedged His Facebook Position?


There are five (correct) answers to this question. They are (in no particular order):

a. who knows?
b. he'd be stupid if he wasn't
c. Broadcast.com
d. Yep, he's gotta to be
e. Yes, his silence (no posts or tweets) on this means only one thing

First, let's take a look at Mark Cuban's current (disclosed) Facebook position---

(Long) 150,000 shares; average cost per share $32.49; total cost $4,873,500

Based on a 6/1/12 FB close at $27.72, Cuban looks like he is sitting on a net (paper) loss of $715,500.

Do we begin to worry and feel sorry for Mark Cuban and his Facebook trade? No, because we only can see his paper loss. No, because he already told us this is a trade, not a long term investment. No, because with an original FB position of nearly $5 million, he has a vested interest in monitoring trade. No, because Mark Cuban doesn't like to lose money. No, because Mark Cuban isn't stupid.

Back in 1995 Mark Cuban and partner created Broadcast.com, a multimedia company. Years later they sold the company to Yahoo! for $5.7 billion in 1999. But, Cuban then owned restricted Yahoo! stock that was locked up. Cuban was at risk owning (temporarily) illiquid Yahoo stock. Cuban was at substantial risk. Cuban didn't want to accept that risk. Mark Cuban wanted to transfer that risk to the options market. So, Cuban says he "hedged my stock with synthetic indexes, in case the market cratered in the six months before I could hedge my actual Yahoo shares. It cost me $20 million, but I protected what I had." (Fast Company, September 30, 2002).

In January 2000, Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks, NBA franchise.

In May 2012, Cuban bought a little under $5 million of Facebook stock.

Mark Cuban is hedged.

Yahoo Gets $7 Billion in Sale of Alibaba

Yahoo Agrees to Sell Back Partial Stake to Alibaba

Partially related to the former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson resigning in disgrace recently; but mostly related to hedge fund activist investor Daniel Loeb getting seats on the Yahoo! board of directors, Yahoo has liquidated some of its stake in Aliba.

Yahoo will sell off about half of its stake in Alibaba Group back to the Chinese e-commerce giant in a US$7.1 billion deal.

This is known as a liquidity event or Daniel Loeb getting something for his 5% stake in the company and related on going headaches.

Yahoo! shares opened slightly gap-up on the news (NASDAQ:YHOO), but has since faded in normal trade.

Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson is finally fired

Daniel Loeb, activist hedge fund manager at Third Point and owner of 5% of Yahoo! common stock, has gotten his way. Finally. At long last.

Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson resigned Sunday, amid relentless questions about his academic credentials and generally poor corporate management skills. And, of course, the generally poor condition of Yahoo! stock! for years!

Sorry Scott, we don't have any job leads! However ...

Khol’s is hiring at a location near you!

Maybe Yahoo! could be interested in Jerry Yang! Part III !

More Executive Problems at Yahoo!

Wake up Yahoo! and hear the music, smell the coffee, and finally hire the right managers!


Daniel Loeb, the activist investor at the hedge fund Third Point, now owns 5% of Yahoo! common stock. And Dan is tired. Very tired. Tired of Yahoo! mistakes, issues and continual problems. And many, many shareholders agree with him.

Dan is tired of “inadvertent mistake”after mistake on Yahoo! executive resumes such as CEO Scott Thompson and Director Patti Hart.

Dan is tired of botched takeover offers from Microsoft. Tired of CEO musical chairs. Tired of poor financial performance.

Make Dan Loeb less tired. Energize Dan by putting him on the Yahoo! board of directors. Get Yahoo! moving again. Finally.

Bye, bye Jerry Yang!

In a letter to the Yahoo! Board Chairman Roy Bostock, Jerry Yang wrote:

“My time at Yahoo!, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo! As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.”


NAME: Jerry Yang AGE: 43
NET WORTH: $1.1 billion; holds 3.6 percent stake in Yahoo Inc.
FAMILY HISTORY: Born in Taiwan, married to Akiko Yamazaki.

Yahoo! Sports wages class warfare against NBA owners

Yahoo! Sports, trying to give its NBA reporters something to do and stay somewhat relevant, begins the political charged discussion with:

Think NBA owners are sweating out each day of the lockout? Maybe you should check the number of league bosses on the latest Forbes 400 list. A dozen NBA owners made the rankings of the richest people in America. With 30 teams in the conference, that means 42.8 percent of the owners are sitting pretty.

Joshua Harris has an impressive resume that includes a bachelor's degree from Penn’s Wharton School of Business and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. The 46-year-old is one of the youngest on our list and worth $1.45 billion.


http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/list/201109/nbas-richest-owners

Get rid of Jerry Yang and the rest of his Yahoo! cronies

Is it possible that there can be Two! Yahoo! idiots in the world??!!

The short answer is Yes!

We know of the first Yahoo! idiot. Non other than Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang.

Master.Destroyer.of.Yahoo!.Shareholder.Value.

He has done it several times, folks.

The second Yahooo! idiot is Daniel Loeb. Daniel is a hedge fund manager who apparently forgot to sell his Yahoo shares recently and still owns 5.15% of the dying web company.

"Get rid of Jerry Yang and the rest of his Yahoo! cronies" is essentially what Daniel announced to Yahoo!, the Wall Street Journal! and the World! this week!

Hedge.Fund.Drama.Queen.

Daniel wrote this week that " ... this Board's failures have destroyed value for all Yahoo stakeholders." And this guy manages money for other people.

Yahoo! stock (NASDAQ:YHOO) closed at $14.88 today.

"Billionaire Party Boy" (Burkle) likes Philadelphia Freedom Properties (dead media)

"Billionaire Party Boy" is a term used by the NY Post to describe the California billionaire college drop out Ron Burkle, is interested in buying several Philadelphia newspapers.

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Party Boy Ron is having a pretty active 2010, if you ask us.

He is mixed up with Harvey Weinstein regarding some Miramax funding plans.

He has left Yahoo's board of directors. (Good move Ron, IOHO)

And earlier this year, Ron let some more info about former President Bill Clinton be known to the world at large.


In any event, let's keep a close eye on Ron Burkle during the rest of the year. Ok?

The Top 5 bad billionaires for the year 2008

Here at Think Billion$, we've been doing some thinking and serious research. The outcome of which is our First Annual "The Top 5 bad billionaires for the year 2008" list. How about that?

So here's the list and let us know what you think:


1. Jim Clark, the Silicon Graphics founder and serial entrepreneur for being bad in a good way!!?? It was discovered that Jim, 64, has inked Australian super-model Kristy Hinze, 28, to a term sheet as wife number four. You rascal, Jim. Best of luck to both of you from Think Billion$.

2. Donald Trump, for insisting he is still a billionaire, when he is not. And even suing the newspaper reporter for discovering it. Bad form Donald. Very bad.

3. Mark Cuban, for being Mark Cuban, for getting tangled up with the SEC and for thinking that he could buy the Chicago Cubs, and for being Mark Cuban.

4. Jerry Yang, for not maximizing Yahoo shareholder value while the money was on the damn table, Jerry!

5. Michael Bloomberg, for not respecting motherhood in the office and for appointing himself King of New York City.

Happy New Year to one and all!!!

Hey, Jerry Yang, this one is on YOU!

Yes, you Jerry!

And some people actually think that maximizing shareholder value is a bad thing. That crappy, brain dead executive management doesn’t matter. That washed up, co-founders of a company actually care about their employees.

No, Jerry, this is what happens when you really, really, screw it all the hell up!!!


Yahoo begins telling workers who's being laid off

Carl Icahn averages down with Yahoo! shares

Carl Icahn, the billionaire corporate raider and takeover artist, has picked up another 6.8 million shares of Yahoo (YHOO) stock this week for just under $10 a share (about a third of what he paid in May when he started building his position)

Icahn now holds 75.6 million shares (just under 5 percent of total outstanding shares)

He also controls three seats on Yahoo’s board. Jerry Yang, the Yahoo co-founder on his way to early retirement, issued no official comment on the Yahoo! share pick up by Carl Icahn.

Think Billion$ comment: What else is he going to do at this point???

Billionaire boy bozo Jerry Yang finally steps down

Yahoo Inc. co-founder Jerry Yang finally faced the music and decided to step down as CEO.

Boy billionaire Yang, as the whole world remembers, had more than a rocky 2008. This year was punctuated by Yang's absolute foolishness and stupidity by his refusal to sell YHOO to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion -- more than triple Yahoo's current market value.

And get this, Jerry had the audacity of saying the following via a statement today: ""I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation."

If you want to see how Jerry Yang destroyed YHOO shareholder value, go here.

The following CNET poll got it right when Jerry decided he needed his old job back.

The Village Billionaire Idiot, Yahoo's Jerry Yang, Now Loves Microsoft

Readers, we cannot make this stuff up.

Billionaire Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is now ready to bargain with Microsoft over the sale of his company after screwing over shareholders and many others all year long.

"To this day, I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo," Yang said from the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco this week.

Microsoft withdrew its $33 per share bid offer earlier this year after Village Idiot Yang demanded $37. Current price: $13.96. Where did this guy go to school?

Steve ... offer $9 bucks a share. See what happens. LOL!

T. Boone Pickens should have shorted Yahoo, instead

Oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens just took a hard, cold tech bath by going long YHOO, with his buddy Carl Icahn, in the yearlong battle to takeover Yahoo! and toss it to Steve Balmer and Microsoft. He has sold all of his shares.

T. Boone's loss is estimated at $50 million.


Dealbreaker

San Francisco Chronicle

Jerry Yang Continues to Hate Microsoft and Yahoo! shareholders. The end.

As reported on ThinkBillion$ here, here, and here, Boy Billionaire, Yahoo! co-founder, and Microsoft hater Jerry Yang has now totally and officially jumped the financial shark with his rejection of any and all things Microsoft.

The only thing we could approriately conclude with here is with Michael Arrington's piece in TechCrunch, ("Massive Destruction Of Shareholder Value, Employee Morale and Internet Balance Of Power") reporting the whole affair this way: "I don’t believe that there is anything Yahoo could do at this point to further destroy their business that would surprise me."

YHOO ended today's trading at $23.47 a share, down 5 cents.


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WSJ: Microsoft Studies Strategy as Yahoo Talks End

Billionaire Proxy Battle: Icahn vs. Yang

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn will seek to remove Jerry Yang as chief executive of Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) if Icahn succeeds in a proxy battle against the company over its failure to reach a deal with Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

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