After months of voicing a strong opinion on the future of Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), Carl Icahn dumped an additional $67 million on the Internet services provider in a three-day purchase that immediately spurred speculation a new company CEO will soon be named to replace current Yahoo! CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang.

Earlier this month Yang announced he will step down as soon as the board of directors finds his replacement. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Icahn gobbled up 6.8 million shares at about $9.92 each, ramping his stake in the company to 5.5 percent. Shares of Yahoo started an early ascent, moving up 8.88 percent to close at $11.52 Friday. Investors are also biting on rumors there may another round of talks regarding a merger with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) in the upcoming months.

Earlier this summer, when Yahoo’s board of directors rejected a $47.5 billion

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Jerry Yang, Yahoo Inc.’s (YHOO) co-founder and chief executive officer, today (Tuesday) stepped down from his post under heavy shareholder pressure. Yang will return to his former role as board member and “Chief Yahoo!” – a non-so-flattering, if not ironic, title considering the heavy criticism he took in the past year – upon the appointment of his replacement.

Yang was elected CEO in June 2007, his second go-around at that post. Since then, Yahoo’s market value has fallen by more than $20 billion, according to Bloomberg.

To be fair, Yahoo was already losing its market share to Google Inc. (GOOG) and a healthy percent of its share value as a result.

But Yang was brought back to fix that.

There was a deep feeling within Yahoo’s ranks that Yang wasn’t fit to continue leading the company out of the mire – or least into a

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After working in Silicon Valley for 15 years, I developed this theory called “The Myth of Empowerment.” While the Myth of Empowerment wasn’t intended to act as a qualitative indicator for stock picking, it turns out that it could easily be applied to the decline of Yahoo (Nasdaq:YHOO) - with the fallout inflicting damage on Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT).

The one thing you notice about Silicon Valley is the meetings. They multiply like a fungus. Once inside, you become intoxicated from the heady fumes of whiteboard markers, since the entire culture seems incapable of explaining anything without standing in front of the room to draw organizational charts. Ditto for PowerPoint.

And so the Myth of Empowerment came into being after years of sitting in conference rooms listening to these pretentious windbags. As the Myth

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Highlighted stocks include Baidu.com (BIDU), Sohu.com (SOHU), United Online (UNTD) and Yahoo (YHOO).

Key Points: Despite the resignation of Jerry Yang, forecasts are trending downward for Yahoo Other Internet companies are doing well, however, such as Sohu.com and United Online

Without Merger, Few Positive Catalysts For Yahoo Over The Short-Term

Yesterday, Yahoo (YHOO) announced the resignation of Jerry Yang from the CEO post. The announcement was met with cheer as shares rose by nearly a buck to $11.55.

Playing a role in the upward move were speculators hoping for renewed merger talks with Microsoft (MSFT). The problem is that there is no guarantee that a merger will occur.

Without a merger, there are few catalysts for the stock. Naming a well-respected outsider as a CEO might help, but the company is struggling with both tough competition and a weak economy.

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Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang thinks so. He believes that a Microsoft purchase of Yahoo would be a wise choice for the operating system giant. Jerry Yang spoke at the prestigious Web 2.0 event in San Francisco and openly expressed his opinions to an interviewer. “To this day, I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo,” he said. While there are no talks happening at the moment, he continued by stating that the board of directors and himself would “remain open to everything.”

Now let’s take this idea one step farther. What does this potentially mean?

Microsoft’s last talks fell apart under unknown circumstances, but the potential deal was anywhere from $33-$37 a share. If Microsoft places their bid, it would most likely be under the reduced share prices of today, hovering around the $13 mark. Shareholders might see a bump in Yahoo’s stock price, which

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It’s got to be frustrating for Jerry Yang. The 40-year-old co-founder and CEO of Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) is sitting on top of the world’s most popular web site, yet he can’t compete with Google Inc.’s (GOOG) more effective search-engine advertising machine.

Google rubbed more sand in Yang’s eyes Wednesday when it walked away from a plan announced in June to sell advertisements on Yahoo’s pages after the Justice Department threatened to block the deal on antitrust grounds.

Google already has more than 70% of the search-engine driven advertising market. Yahoo has about 10%, according to BusinessWeek.

For Yang, it was a chance to revive falling sales, even if it meant falling on his sword instead of wielding it against its chief rival.

Now, his shareholders are livid. His future is uncertain. And his best option for survival is a partnership with Microsoft

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Is Yahoo! (YHOO) eager to shed some flab? The appointment of Bain & Co. to look at opportunities to streamline operations and improve efficiency may well be a sign that some jobs are on the line at the online giant. According to an analyst quoted by Dow Jones, a 10% headcount looks reasonable at the time being.

Trying hard to tide over tough times, Yahoo launched Apt on Wednesday, a new system promising to cut the costs and complexity of online advertising. Chief Executive Jerry Yang termed the system "revolutionary" a day after the Yahoo board gave the nod to broach talks with Time Warner (TWX) on the future of the AOL unit.

Financial Times quoted Hilary Schneider, executive vice president of Yahoo US, as saying that Apt would allow Yahoo to tap into a $9.5bn local online advertising market. The stock was up 47 cents at $19.24 in

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