Yahoo! We Never Knew Ya...or Did We?

How is it possible that Yahoo (YHOO) has sunk so far from that 125 dollar a share Internet wonder story we had seven years ago? It is about evolving, and changing, and honestly in the case of Yahoo, maybe a little arrogance. Who knew that two kids could come up with Google (GOOG), and overtake the great Yahoo, but they did.

I was in San Francisco as a reporter and business news anchor during the dot-com build, the dot-com bubble, and the dot-com implosion. It was like a big zit that just exploded, it was awful.

There was so much arrogance and wasteful spending leading up to that event. 26-year-olds driving Lamborghini's, buying wineries and five star restaurants, renting yachts for an average office happy hour. It was fun, I had a great time, but I was never part of that world, I only covered it.

I remember seeing so many graduates coming out of college who believed they were "due" the nice car, the expense account, the stock options. I remember those same young adults getting laid off, divorced, demoralized, and in many cases bankrupted. That is when I first witnessed the hard reality of AMT.

Where are they now?

Is Google the new Yahoo? Says who? The same feelings I had about excess in those days bothers me now. The Internet is basically open, free, never ending, and a second world. Can one company own it? No. Can companies integrate themselves into our lives? Yes. Sure, I shop on the web all the time, I get it.

So we use Google to search, and we may use Yahoo for our news and movie listings. But, at the end of the day, are we kidding ourselves that that will be enough to keep these stocks moving higher, and delivering what is still in many ways, only promises?

Steve Ballmer of Microsoft (MSFT) is much smarter than I, and I believe he wants to integrate into your life, my life, with Windows, and Office, and wireless phones, and more. If he believes Yahoo will help him accomplish that, and Yahoo has nowhere else to go but down, we may have a deal.

But is it a good deal?