Once again, BoomTown's Kara Swisher turns to her Yahoo sources following Microsoft's unexpected decision to walk away from the $47-billion bid it lodged at the Web giant. Most of the Yahoo execs she
interviewed are VP level or above. After speaking with them, Swisher tells CEO Jerry Yang: "Your stock drop isn't the worst thing you will have to deal with this morning when you pull up at work." The
worst part, she says, will be the looks Yang receives from his employees, "who are scared silly and a lot peeved by the limb many feel you have dragged them and their stock options out onto."
Understandably, the most pressing concern from Yahoo employees was that its stock might fall below $20 per share (it's currently at $23 and falling). The expectation of a search partnership with
Google might keep it higher, but the announcement of a hastily cobbled together merger with AOL would probably not help things, Swisher says. "And, just so we are all clear," she adds, "everyone at
Yahoo I talked to sure isn't celebrating."
Said one, "I don't know if we won or we lost. I think we lost." Said another: "Having to face my staff tomorrow will not be so much fun and I need
some Prozac, since I don't know what I can say to them about how our leadership is going to get our company going again." And another: "I can't really talk to Jerry, since it is difficult to tell a
founder tough things he probably needs to hear."
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