Former interim CEO of Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) Ross Levinsohn thinks so. He floated the idea Wednesday on CNBC's "Fast Money: Halftime Report."
"If I was back at Yahoo I would have hopped on a plane, gotten into a Brink's truck and driven it to his studio and said, 'Whatever you want,'" Levinsohn said. "You can build an entire business around this man."
Now, this may be the ramblings of just another Jon Stewart fanboy. But it's also a fanboy who just happened to be the former CEO of a struggling quasi-media entity.
And it could easily just be written off as another tribute. Stewart's retirement announcement this week brought with it a deluge of post-mortems and wild speculation.
But that doesn't mean it's a ridiculous idea. It may perhaps be the least wild of all the wild speculation. Some have even suggested he take the seat vacated by shamed "NBC Nightly News" host Brian Williams.
It could only help Yahoo stock at this point. The struggling online directory and communications platform needs to find a profitable core business strategy - and soon. The clock is ticking, and once it sells off its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA), there will be little reason for shareholders to stay with the company.
Levinsohn's media-centric strategy didn't impress the Yahoo board in 2012 when they considered him for the CEO job. His desire was for Yahoo to compete with Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) as a media giant. He wanted to abandon the futile battle with Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG, GOOGL) as a seller of ads against digital content, in a struggle where Yahoo isn't the only underdog.
That's why they hired current CEO Marissa Mayer.
Mayer is more product-focused. To her, the fight against Google and Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) is not yet lost.
But Mayer's lofty - and what will ultimately be fruitless - aspirations don't diminish the value a personality like Stewart could bring to Yahoo.
And there's every reason to think that if Mayer can snatch him up, she will.
She may have been chosen as CEO for her analytic-driven, digital-product approach, but she is receptive to the media side of Yahoo's business. Even if she doesn't attack it with the same zeal as Levinsohn did.
And should she succeed, here's what that would do for YHOO...
What Jon Stewart Could Mean for Yahoo
It's first important to mention that Stewart wouldn't be the first personality acquisition Yahoo went after.
After longtime television anchor and journalist Katie Couric departed from ABC News in 2013, Mayer snatched her up and made her Yahoo's Global News Anchor. The idea was to sell ads against an online video news program hosted by Couric.
According to Nicholas Carlson's book, Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!, Yahoo was once interested in Gwyneth Paltrow. Mayer didn't follow through, though. According to reports, she wasn't impressed by Paltrow's lack of a college education.
Levinsohn laid out just how a Stewart franchise would work.
"The Daily Show" doesn't put up Bill O'Reilly ratings, but it does capture an important demographic. The average viewer is 36 years old. O'Reilly's is age 54, according to the Pew Research Center.
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"All the major media companies are really focused on how they talk to millennials going forward," Levinsohn said.
Stewart is No. 4 amongst all late-night viewership. But if you break out those figures, Stewart's value becomes more intriguing, Levinsohn said. Of his audience, 80% is between the ages of 18 and 49. He's No. 2 in ratings among the 18 to 34 demographic. He's No. 1 among men ages 18 to 25.
Yahoo would capture this very important demographic. But not only that, they could build a subscription-based service around him. Yahoo could then sell ads against Stewart's content while also collecting subscription fees.
Levinsohn estimates that Stewart could be a $100-million-a-year franchise.
So, why wouldn't Yahoo buy Stewart?
Stewart's personality certainly wouldn't jibe with the Mayer strategy. Money is hardly an issue.
Yahoo is sitting on a huge cash windfall in its near future.
Granted, Alibaba stock has fallen 16% on the year. But even when it's beaten up, that 15% Yahoo stake in Alibaba still worth $33.4 billion. That's assuming Alibaba doesn't grow at all.
Add to that the fact that Yahoo already has $10 billion in cash, and that it's planning a spin-off of its Alibaba investment to make its sale of those shares tax-efficient.
Bottom line: Yahoo has a lot of cash coming its way. Much more than the $30 million a year Stewart was worth at Comedy Central.
And Mayer has already sunk $2 billion into dozens of acquisitions in the last two years. Paying for Stewart would be a drop in the bucket. And it would certainly pay more dividends than some of the misguided purchases Mayer has made in the past.
But there's one more thing that would prevent Yahoo from buying Jon Stewart...
Jon Stewart.
There's no guarantee he would jump at any offer. It's less clear if he would even want to hitch his saddle to Yahoo.
There's no shortage of media personalities who made a name for themselves on alternative platforms after dropping out of the mainstream. Many have even raised their profiles. Howard Stern did it when he left terrestrial radio for Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: SIRI). Glenn Beck ditched cable news for an online subscription-based program. Anthony Cumia, recently fired co-host of the Sirius XM show Opie & Anthony, started an online video podcast from his basement.
No official word yet on if Stewart will join them.
The market has beat up Alibaba stock lately...but don't be fooled. Alibaba stock is still a game-changer, and the mobile market is going to drive it even higher. And this $590 million deal is going to prove to be a major share-price catalyst...
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