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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Siemens Settle Bribery Charges for $1.3 Billion; Google Walks From Yahoo; Enbridge Channels 88% Profit Growth; FCC Approves Sprint-Clearwire Merger; GMAC Finance Revenue Stuck in Reverse; Time Warner Revenue Unchanged; Molson Coors Pops; News Corp. Profit Down 30%

Siemens AG (SI) put aside nearly $1.3 billion to settle charges that it bribed government officials around the world to win contracts. The concessionary provision will affect earnings for the year ended Sept. 30, Bloomberg reported. Internet titan Google Inc. (GOOG) announced Wednesday (yesterday) that its wariness for antitrust-related legal battles ultimately killed discussions ...

Buy/Sell/Hold ETF Zooms 42%; Magna Reports 3Q Loss, Slashes Dividend; U.S. Factory Orders Down 2.5%; Walgreen Same-store Sales Rise 2%, Yahoo Shares Upgraded; Oil Rises 12% on Production Cuts; Archer Daniels Midland Doubles Profit; UBS Turns Profit; Verizon Cleared to Take Over Alltel.

The iShares MSCI Brazil Index (EWZ), an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that was the topic of the popular “Buy, Sell or Hold” feature a week ago Monday (Oct. 27), surged another 9.82% yesterday (Tuesday) and is now up 42% in the six days since Contributing Editor Horacio Marquez rated the ETF as a “Buy” in his column. The shares, which were recommended at $29.94, zoomed $3.81 each, or 9.82%, to close at $42.60, and have now gained $12.66 a share, or 42% since they were recommended by Marquez. They traded as high as $43.35 yesterday – an increase of 45% from their recommendation ...

Buy/Sell/Hold ETF Zooms 42%; Magna Reports 3Q Loss, Slashes Dividend; U.S. Factory Orders Down 2.5%; Walgreen Same-store Sales Rise 2%, Yahoo Shares Upgraded; Oil Rises 12% on Production Cuts; Archer Daniels Midland Doubles Profit; UBS Turns Profit; Verizon Cleared to Take Over Alltel.

The iShares MSCI Brazil Index (EWZ), an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that was the topic of the popular “Buy, Sell or Hold” feature a week ago Monday (Oct. 27), surged another 9.82% yesterday (Tuesday) and is now up 42% in the six days since Contributing Editor Horacio Marquez rated the ETF as a “Buy” in his column. The shares, which were recommended at $29.94, zoomed $3.81 each, or 9.82%, to close at $42.60, and have now gained $12.66 a share, or 42% since they were recommended by Marquez. They traded as high as $43.35 yesterday – an increase of 45% from their recommendation ...

But if Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) can't beat the street, look out below.  Just about all of us at the Masters have owned GOOG at one time, now its trading near $300 and its 52-week low.  The earnings call comes after the closing bell, so do you have the guts to buy before the call? Its just too tough to call in this market, as much as we all have faith and use Google, what if they miss?  The stock will drop like a rock and we think it could be a $100 loss in the first 15 minutes.  Then again the stock could take off and do a $70 to $100 point run. Google Inc.'s profits have rarely disappointed, but investors appear to be bracing for a letdown Thursday afternoon when the Internet search leader is scheduled ...

On a day, when the meltdown in Wall Street continues to dominate headlines, shares of search engine giant Google, Inc. (GOOG) surged by as much as 18.41% to trade at $432.90 in the afternoon. The jump came on the back of new data that showed that Google has widened its lead in market share over rivals Yahoo Inc! (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT).

According to Comscore.Inc., search count on Google by U.S. surfers hiked to 63% in August from 61.9 percent in July and 56.5 percent in August last year. No guesses at whose expense the success came. This doubled the joy for Google shareholders after the management had announced on Wednesday that the company will move full steam ahead with Yahoo in implementing its advertising search deal.

Google had hit a rough patch in the two weeks, when its stock price plunged below the $420 mark -- for

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By Mike Caggeso Associate Editor After months of tumultuous shareholder temperament, Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) is giving its board and product line a makeover to convince traders of its value after turning down Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT) $47.5 billion offer, according to reports. President Susan Decker is pushing a plan to roll several product groups under one roof (such as mail, search and home-page divisions), The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources close to the matter. Four executives - Brad Garlinghouse (who oversees e-mail and instant messaging), Vish Makhijani (general manager of web search), Qi Lu (top engineer for search marketing) and Joshua Schachter (founder of social bookmarking site, delicious) are leaving the company, according to TechCrunch. Early last week, Jeff Weiner, executive vice president of the network division, left the company to work in venture capital. Story continues ...

At Peridot Capital, I tend to ignore insider selling completely. Sure, a lot of sales inside a company can indicate management feels their stock is overpriced, but there are dozens of other reasons top brass sell stock, and they are never required to give the reason for their actions. Investors should be able to tell if a stock is grossly expensive or not on their own, if they indeed manage their own money, so insider selling data really can’t be relied upon.

Insider buying, however, I believe is crucially important. While I can make a laundry list of reasons why someone chooses to sell a stock, the reasons to buy are much fewer in number. In fact, there’s only one (to make money). It’s not surprising that studies have shown much more meaningful correlation to stock performance