I posted an article this morning on CNNMoney.com suggesting that investors were perhaps a wee bit too exuberant about Terry Semel’s exit from the scene at Yahoo (YHOO). The stock rose 3% during the day Monday and added another 5% after the market closed. Today’s a different story. The stock has given back nearly everything it took Monday, trading down about 1% from Monday’s close. By late morning, Yahoo changed hands at $27.84, just 50 cents or so above where it ended last week.
Semel’s exit was the non-surprise surprise. Marketplace radio’s Kai Ryssdal found me on the freeway in Silicon Valley yesterday about twenty minutes before air time to talk about the news. (The text and audio of the interview are posted here.) My insta-analysis: Yahoo’s failure is all about Google (GOOG) and simply getting rid of Mr. Hollywood doesn’t change things much.
Investors also completely ignored Yahoo’s downbeat earnings commentary yesterday, though they’ve wised up today. Shares of mighty Goog, by the way, are practically unchanged today.