A Fool Looks Back

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz
November 22, 2008 | Comments (1)

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Say goodbye to Jerry
You won't have Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) CEO Jerry Yang to kick around anymore. The company's co-founder announced that he is stepping down, once the company completes a search for his replacement.

Yang's reign has been rocky. The company continues to yield market share to Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) under his watch, and Yang may never be able to live down dismissing Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) generous $31-per-share buyout offer earlier this year.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer insists that he's not interested in a new run at the company, even with the open boardroom and dirt-cheap share price. I don't believe him. There are cracks all over Microsoft's flagship software business, so the push into online advertising makes perfect sense to me.

It's a shame that Yang has to go out this way, but maybe we can now lay to rest the myth that co-founder CEOs can return to lead their companies to glory. Beyond Steve Jobs, can you name another winner? Nix the romanticism. It's hazardous to your portfolio.

Briefly in the news
And now let's look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.

  • Grand Canyon Education (Nasdaq: LOPE) went public on Thursday. The company provides online degree programs in the business, health-care, and education fields. The IPO opened at $10, well below its pricing of $12 a share, but at least it's an IPO. We haven't seen one of those here since Web-hosting giant Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) went public during the second week of August.
  • I guess things are bad when even home-based comforts such as home-theater entertainment and the daily newspaper take their shots. DVR pioneer TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) announced layoffs, and New York Times (NYSE: NYT) slashed its dividend by a whopping 74%. Everyone's afraid to say the "R" word. "Recession"? No. Recovery! We can sure use it sooner rather than later.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz

“Make Big Money With Options” Motley Fool CFO Ollen Douglass recently made over $100,000 buying options on 7 well known stocks. Now we’re committed to turning his small fortune into a massive one! And we want you to join us! Enter your email address to hear more:

Microsoft is a Motley Fool Inside Value pick. Google is a Motley Fool Rule Breakers recommendation. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz recommends windshield wiper fluid when trying to look back. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. He does not own shares in any of the stocks in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy.

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  • Report this Comment On November 22, 2008, at 8:50 AM, Pantodon wrote:

    Rick said:

    "but maybe we can now lay to rest the myth that co-founder CEOs can return to lead their companies to glory. Beyond Steve Jobs, can you name another winner?"

    How about Tom Gardner? :-)

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