• The New York Times, Tuesday, November 21, 2006 11:15 AM

The New York Times asks, a day after the highly publicized "Peanut Butter" incident, whether Yahoo's stock might now be considered a bargain for investors. Following the grim news in October that lead to the Sunnyvale, Calif. Web giant's stock plummeting even farther, Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post, declared now's the time to buy.

He and many stockholders believe the main problem for Yahoo is its inability to cash in on search, the one and only driver of Google's stock for the last two and a half years. Yahoo's search revenue in the third quarter was $191 million, compared with Google's $911 million--a huge divide when you consider that Yahoo has nearly one-quarter of the search market.

Enter Project Panama, the upgrade to the company's search-marketing system, which is slated for a full introduction in 2007. Analysts say Panama could raise Yahoo's monetization from 4 cents a share today to as much as 7 cents if it proves to be a success. If Panama falls short, Yahoo could always turn to Google for help or let itself be acquired.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »