Don’t believe the skeptics, 2009 was not a bad year for Yahoo. Well, at least not worse than the previous ones…
And looking ahead Yahoo and its investors might have a reason to pop open a bottle of champaign late 2010. Here are our predictions for the coming year!

Turmoil
Oh yes, there was a lot of turmoil indeed: a new CEO, massive lay-offs, the plummeting ad market, the closing down of loads of services and the amputation of Yahoo! Search. But let us look beyond that…

Redesign
2009 saw Yahoo’s homepage get a fresh new look with some daring choices. Less ads, more external links and apps!
Launched with a lot of fanfare, the redesign received a lot of criticism and headscratching from would be experts. Just like any of the previous changes Yahoo! made to their homepage.
But now the numbers are in and they’re not bad at all!

Time spent on Yahoo!’s homepage increased 20% while pageviews increased an impressive 9%. The clickthrough on the front ad increased a sweet 10% while the Today Spotlight clickthrough increased a massive 76%!
Though admittedly Yahoo could do a lot more exciting things with the apps integration and hopefully will soon.

Another bright spot?
Hands on CEO Carol Bartz is doing some smart cost cutting: axing lavish employee parties, closing Yahoo! offices from Christmas to New Year and yes closing down a lot of ill ventured money-losing services.

The list of casualities?
Yahoo! Geocities, video service Maven Networks, social networks Yahoo! 360 and SpotM, Yahoo! Go, Search Submit Pro, Karaoke & contest site Bix, MyWeb Bookmarking, Yahoo! Briefcase, Adsense rival Content Match, Yahoo! Chatrooms and early 2010 MyBlogLog will cease to exist.

Were those services critical for Yahoo!? Hardly, it would have taken loads of effort to make them best of breed and some focus was hardly needed.
Meanwhile Bartz is also trying to sell some crown jewels to the highest bidder like Hotjobs and Yahoo! Personals.

Ka-ching & Bing?
And then there’s the huge search deal with Microsoft off course!
Although the deal may not be so smart in the long run it’ll reap a lot of cash for Yahoo during the next few years. Outsourcing search to Bing will lower costs and could be worth as much as $500 million annually according to some analysts.

A warning for Carol though: cutting away the fat is ok, but please keep clear of the limbs!

Luckily Yahoo also signaled it might do some smart targeted acquisitions and Yahoo! keeps experimenting with in house talent. Resulting in the 2009 lauch of Yahoo! Meme, a surprisingly nice Twitter/Facebook alternative and the acquisitions of e-mail start-up Xoopit and the popular Arabic portal Maktoob.

Besides all that an advertising comeback wil surely lead to a Yahoo! revenue windfall in the nearby future and Yahoo!’s ever growing, massive userbase can only help with that.

Now where’s that champaign? Cheers!

> Will Yahoo! find its mojo in 2010? Will the Microsoft search deal be Yahoo!’s death stab or savior? And are you a fan of Yahoo! services?
Share your opinion!

For the purpose of full disclosure & fairness: I do own YHOO stock. Yes, I put my money where my mouth is!

That might be just what the doctor ordered for Yahoo! Bartz just freezed employee pays for the next 2 years and she won’t let Microsoft bully Yahoo! around either. One of Bartz’s first comments was her guts told her not to sell Yahoo! Search to Steve Ballmer and his Windows mob. Nice!

One week in, Carol Bartz sent a memo to all Yahoo! asking to stop press leaks… which you can read in the subsequently leaked memo…

Carol will have the tough task announcing Yahoo!’s most recent Q4 numbers next tuesday. And while everyone is expecting them to be dismal, the low expectations might just leave some room for positive surprise too. However small…

From: Carol Bartz
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 3:12 PM
Subject: My First Friday

It’s Friday!

Wow, this week has gone fast. I thought I’d give you a quick idea of how things went for me this week. First, a BIG thank you for all the positive comments you’ve sent my way. It has really made me feel welcome. And a special big thanks to all the guys (that’d be Willie, Anthony, Jack, Allen, Daryl, Nathan, Ali, etc.) that worked so quickly to get Judy and I up and running. I know I told you at the all-hands that I was going to be bringing my lunch. That was before I saw the cafeteria–it rocks! Forget that leftover stuff!

My first impression of the Yahoos is that you guys are smart and dedicated, and have a lot of great energy with a can-do attitude (ok, maybe there’s some sucking up because I’m the boss, but it impressed the heck out of me).

I wasn’t too happy to see some “inside sources” quoting my all-hands comments to the outside press–STOP IT! And while we’re on the subject of all-hands, I cancelled the regularly scheduled after-earnings meeting simply because it’s just too close to the one we just had. Don’t take it as something it’s not.

I’m pumped up and proud to be here. I’m going to spend my weekend shopping for something purple (great excuse for a little retail therapy)…

Carol

> What’s your opinion on Yahoo! and its new CEO? Have your say in the comments section below!

Even though Yahoo! and its 17 months interim CEO and origininal founder Jerry Yang have been kicked and called names at by popular media in recent times… Yahoo.com still is a profitable internet powerhouse of enormous proportions.

And many might not have noticed the silver lining in all of this. Yahoo! is still growing its huge reach even further and making huge inroads on several fronts.

An overview of Yahoo!’s spectacular and unexpected wins and why the economic downturn can help the plagued company.

Yahoo! scores BIG!

120 million users, three years after its launch Yahoo! Answers is a well known success story… In a moment of brilliance, Yahoo! has been able to copy the success formula recently with Yahoo! Buzz. A service which has proven to be a smashhit overnight.

Yahoo! Buzz use has exploded with monthly growth surpassing 70% since its launch in August 2007. In just seven months Yahoo! Buzz dethroned its biggest competitor Digg.com both in visits and spent time.

The service provided unseen gunpowder growth to several sites as following examples show:

• Yahoo Buzz sent 16 million visitors to outside sites its first two weeks!
• US Magazine had their second highest traffic day thanks to Yahoo Buzz, with 32% of visits that day coming from the Yahoo home page.
• Salon.com had 1 million unique visitors on February 28th after getting on the home page of Buzz. A record for the twelve year old site!
• Huffington Post reported 800,000 unique visitors from a Yahoo-linked story.
• Sugar, Inc. sites have had nearly 1.8 million unique visitors sent from five different Buzz stories on the Yahoo home page.

In short Yahoo Buzz is a successful example of Yahoo!’s network effect if Yahoo! integrates smartly. Yahoo! Buzz isn’t a one off story either, Yahoo! has shown more empressive feats recently.

Yahoo! takes on Youtube?
Both Yahoo! Video and Yahoo Finance’s Tech Ticker have seen impressive growth spikes in recent months.

Tech Ticker – a modest reiteration of the illfated Yahoo! Financevision – brings you webcasts featuring news and interviews about tech companies and the financial markets. No wonder its viewage has spiked during the financial crisis and the economic turmoil.

Yahoo! Video – the headon competitor to Google’s Youtube leaped to the second place in the Video Webbrands popularity numbers.

While Youtube video streams “only” grew 12% last September, Yahoo! Video showed a spectacular 56% increase. Its userbase grew 35% in the same time frame.

A smoother integration with other Yahoo! sites like Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! News and Yahoo! Finance are likely to credit for the healthy growth. It also bodes well for Yahoo!’s main page redesign (currently in beta).

Have a look at Yahoo!’s new homepage beta!

In the meantime Yahoo! TV‘s weekly webcast “Primetime in No Time” reached the 100 million streams milestone in a record timeframe of only eight months since its March 2008 launch. This makes “Primetime in No Time” one of the most successful original programs in the history of the Internet.

Created to provide Yahoo! users with a daily comedic, rapid-fire recap of primetime TV’s most water cooler-worthy moments, “Primetime in No Time” reaches TV fans exclusively on Yahoo! TV at http://primetime.tv.yahoo.com. It is hosted by comedian Frank Nicotero and brought to users by Verizon. The webcast reaches 4 million users each week.

Yahoo’s big chance in a downward economy
Yahoo is a company with great potential. Even, or especially since the stock has taken a huge beating.

Due to the economic crisis Yahoo! suddenly isn’t the only internet company in distress.
Yahoo! already has several cost cuts in effect or on their way while others suddenly are scrambling too.

This could also be the perfect chance for Yahoo to line up some new seasoned and experienced talents in their ranks, including a replacement CEO.

Although CEO and Chief Yahoo! Jerry Yang will soon be replaced, Jerry made some smart and efficient decisions during his reign at the company.

As a techie himself Jerry Yang knew improving the workings of Yahoo!’s programmer teams all around the world could cut costs and shorten the launch timeframe for new products.

That’s why Jerry implemented a new way of working. From now on Yahoo! programmers worldwide are working together 24 hours a day, taking over tasks from eachother as time passes by. Instead of the old 9to5 time scheme where Yahoo! UK programmers only worked on the local Yahoo! UK & Ireland sites, Yahoo! France only on their French services,… etc. Each team now works on a global base.

Hang on, Yahoo! makes a profit??
Due to all the it’s cool to beat down Yahoo! press coverage, one would almost forget Yahoo! still is a profitable internet company with no debt and 3,3 billion dollars in its treasure chest. Coupled with a continuous user growth (17% Year on Year) and a massive half a billion users a month(!).

Jerry Yang and co shouldn’t feel bad, after all it’s a popular media sport to create heroes for the sole purpous to kick them down later. But the media also loves a great comeback story!

And in the meantime, why not try out Yahoo!’s latest innovation called Yahoo! Glue (beta).

Sources:

• Yodel Anecdotal! A fab Yahoo! blog!
• YHOO on Yahoo Finance
• Dear Jerry Yang, You Should Be Proud
• Yahoo! Original Program Primetime in No Time Surpasses 100 Million Streams
• Yahoo BUZZ: More traffic you can Digg up, Stumble upon, Mixx and eat Delicious (ly)!
• Yahoo Buzz is a Game Changer for Social Media; And Spells Trouble for Digg!

> Have your say! What’s your favorite Yahoo! service? Are you a Yahoo! believer?

Okay, no problem… or is there?
The launch of the McDouble actually is a great trick. McDonalds will hike the price to $1.19 pretending it’s a new product while at the same time cut the amount of cheese to one slice. McDouble? Yeah… right!

Not that we’ll loose much sleep over $19 cents, but can you imagine what this could do to McDonalds bottom line selling millionsof McDoubles a week at $19 cents extra? They’ve got a great scheme going there!

Popular formula
Off course it’s a formula many brands have excercised recently… you might have noticed those biscuit packages a bit smaller lately or your favorite shampoo running out just a little bit faster?

Loads of products have kept their regular price but have silently been downscaled by a tiny amount in these daunting times. Shareholders will cheer but customers might not like it…

> What’s your opinion? What do you think of product moves like this smart thinking or plain theft?

It’s weird how things turn out. When Google CEO Eric Schmidt joined Apple’s board of directors experts hailed it as a great move.

Apple might be enriched with Google’s working culture and many even dreamt of an Apple-Google-Disney combined Microsoft terminator.

But by the looks of it, it’s quite the opposite. Both companies actually have started competing on multiple fronts…

Google’s recently launched apps are noticably much more slicker and userfriendly then before … a famous Apple trademark and something we can only applaud.

And even Google’s marketing is getting more and more innovative, announcing their browser “Chrome” with a comic book!”

Just a coincidence?

Apple

* On June 11th 2007 Apple launched their browser Safari to the Windows masses.

* June 29 2007, the launch of the original iPhone.

* June 2008, Apple launches the iTunes App Store featuring downloads for the iPhone.

T-mobile's promising Dream cellphone running Google Android.

Google

* 2 September 2008, Google launches its (superb!) browser beta version “Chrome” for windows.

* The first pictures of the G-phone powered by Google’s Android software pop up on the web.

* Google is currently working on “Android Market” a Google competitor for the iTunes App Store.

Both companies also seem on track to offer similar products online with Apple’s 99$ a year “Mobile Me” offering and several online “Google Apps”.

Off course Google’s, “Applefication” shouldn’t come as a suprise as half of the company’s executives previously worked for… Steve Jobs.

The ex-Apple employees and their current function at Google:

* Jonathan Rosenberg – Senior Vice President, Product Management

* Dave Girouard – President, Enterprise

* Kai-Fu Lee Vice – President, Google Inc.; President, Greater China

* Megan Smith – Vice President, New Business Development

* Francois Delepine – Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis

* Mark Fuchs – Vice President of Finance and Chief Accountant

> What do you think of Google’s new products? Downloaded the “Chrome” browser yet? Have your say in the comment section below!

Remember the Elton John song "Just like Belgium" or the movie "This must be Belgium"?

Well Belgium has scored another point with the iPhone. We’ve got the most expensive one one the Planet!

Belgians need to shell out a massive € 525 / $ 825 (8GB) and € 615 / $ 966 (16GB) for the much hyped phone.

How come? Well, thanks to a law intended to protect customers. Makes sense?
Actually there are two laws, one that prohibits selling at a loss and one against coupling products and subsidizing products by charging more for a related item.

Minister Van Quickenborne (who owns a black market unlocked iPhone) will move to adjust the law in September… Hopefully a promise the politician can keep.

Next to the most expensive iPhone, one of the most expensive government forms (we’ve got 7 different governments!, 6 parliaments and a Senate), Belgium also has the most expensive and restrictive broadbandconnections (thanks to a duopoly of broadbandproviders "Telenet" and the stateowned "Belgacom".

In the end you’d wonder wether we’ve even got electricity over here… Lol… We do, but expensive!

Oh well, us Belgians still have the Smurfs, Chocolate AND French Fries!!! Yup, they’re actually from Belgian origin going back to the 17th century. Bet you didn’t know THAT right?

Belgians have so much going for them, haven’t they?

> Have your say! What’s your opinion on the iPhone?

From checking stock quotes daily, I changed my habits to monthly. Always keeping following logic in mind:

What comes down, will go up… Eventually!

Unfortunately Yahoo! (YHOO) kept crashing down from a peak of over $200 (split unajusted) in December 1999 to the abysmal measely 4 to 8 dollar range in 2001/2002.

That’s when I thought – Hey! This is an interesting buy!. After all Yahoo!’s user base continuously kept growing (though their profit margins didn’t). Alas, my parents weren’t convinced and I let it be. (Good boy that I am!)

A few years older I started investing more frequently – I almost wrote more intelligently, but that’s up to you to decide .

I’m a purple believer!

So, I bought more Yahoo! in a market dip at $ 34,75 February 2005. After all, you can pare your losses that way, isn’t it?

Yet the stock just kept going down… And off course, the dips kept coming and July 20th 2006 I bought… suprise, suprise… some more Yahoo! at $ 26,40. Followed by… another dip… and I bought some more at $22,47! (I’m a stubborn little thing, aren’t I?) And then a little thingy happend you might have heard about in the news?

Micro$oft

Microsoft launched a takeover bid at $32. You’d begin to think things were starting to look up, right?

Next post: Adventure on Wall Street Part III: Loyalty, shareholder doubts and the fight between Darth Ballmer and Jedi Yang!

> Are you a Yahoo! investor? A Yahoo! employee or a Yahoo! user?
Give your opinion on Yahoo.com right here!

> Missed the previous part?
Adventure on Wall Street Part I – Buying an internet bellweather.

You might think my investments follow a downward trend jugding by my experience with Yahoo!. Well, guess again, I’m quite proud of the returns so far.

Apple has been my biggest stock darling so far, buying and selling it multiple times from $24 dollar all the way up to $175.

Also Marvel has shown superhero strenght in my stock portfolio, buying it at $14 looks sweet today with the stock hitting an all time high recently at $36.30.

Completing the list is my most recent buy Intel at $22,50 with the stock currently at $23,65, time of writing.

My next buy might be some Green Tech… But I’ll first do my homework and do some serious research.

As for Yahoo! I still see a lot of promise and potential but the jury’s still out on that one!

>How about your experiences on the stock market?

Got a hot tip? Own any YHOO, AAPL, MVL or INTC?

That’s why at the age of 17 I bought my first stock. After a LOT of nagging to my wary parents though.

The date was October 2000 and I just invested my savings in the stock of a wellknown internet bellweather called… Yahoo. At the price of $154 a share. What a bargain, right?

Sell at $205 I said and Yahoo! hit that number less than 2 months afterwards. But hey we’re talking last century here and – unfortunately – online buying and selling wasn’t an option at my bank. As I was told later, the banks preferised big clients and orders and my sell order never got filled.

The Bubble Bursts

It’s only five days after my sell order and it seems like a different world. Exchanges are bleeding red worldwide – it’s the first of many blows. The bears have awoken and the internet bubble bursts…. billions go up into smoke.

Call me a softie but I liked and still like Yahoo! I’ve been a loyal user ever since 1997 untill this day.

No way I was betraying Jerry Yang &co by selling my YHOO and certainly not at a loss!
It’ll go up again, no worries… I thought.

This is a nice graph of Yahoo’s performance the next few months.

Oh well, don’t dispare! There’s a solution to all of this right? Next week… Buying in the dips!

Next Week: Adventure on Wall Street part 2 – Buying in the dips!