SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Yahoo’s sagging stock drooped to a four-year low Wednesday as impatient investors expressed their exasperation with a turnaround strategy that seems to be progressing at the stuttering speed of a dial-up Internet connection.
The Internet giant’s inability to snap out of its financial stupor after more than a year is raising questions about whether Yahoo’s comeback attempt has become an exercise in futility.
“I’m not sure why anyone would want to own the stock right now,” said analyst Clayton Moran of the Stanford Group.
Yahoo shares fell as low as $18.58 on Wednesday before bargain-hunters helped the stock finish at $19.05, down $1.76, or 8.5 percent. It hadn’t traded below $18.60, on a split-adjusted basis, since October 2003.
Wall Street’s latest flogging of Yahoo came after the company reported a lower profit for the fifth consecutive quarter and warned of additional “headwinds” in 2008. Yahoo plans to lay off 1,000 of its 14,300 employees, which could save more than $100 million annually.
Yahoo’s woes also may create pressure on its board to mull a possible sale to a deep-pocketed suitor like Microsoft, which held informal discussions with Yahoo about a partnership last year before co-founder Jerry Yang — one of Yahoo’s biggest shareholders — took over 7 1/2 months ago and promised to salvage one of the best Internet brands.
“We’re not tinkering around the edges,” Yang told analysts Tuesday. “We’re making significant and what we believe are game-changing investments in Yahoo’s future.”
