YHOO

Yahoo! Inc

Trading Strategies

What I Need to See from General Electric's New CEO

On my desk in my office here at Money Map Press is a yellowed newspaper clipping from mid-November 1997 – a Page 1A story featuring my byline.

I've kept this clipping for all these years because it was the last big "scoop" that I got for Gannett Newspapers in Rochester – right before I left for a job here in Baltimore.

I'd been covering the corporate flailing of the once-great Eastman Kodak for nearly five years – a journalistic vision quest that took me from Upstate New York to Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Japan, and even China.

The story that I broke that November was about a soon-to-be-announced corporate "restructuring" – a $1 billion, 10,000-layoff cost-cutting plan that Kodak was planning to share with Wall Streeters at a New York "event" the following Tuesday.

I didn't realize it at the time, but what I'd really written… was Kodak's epitaph.

The company's prospects had seemed much better four years earlier, after a huge shake-up at the top.

I still remember that brighter moment, when I was seated in the executive offices on the top floor of Kodak Tower in Rochester, N.Y.

Across the conference table from me was George M.C. Fisher, Kodak's just-appointed CEO and a vaunted "fix it" guy who was the first-ever outsider to lead the company.

I was there to interview Fisher. The topic on the table: the film giant's possible turnaround.

I was sitting in the room with a very shrewd executive, brought in from "outside" to right the ship...

Stocks

Verizon Will Spin Shareholder Gold from Yahoo's Ashes

I've been "hooked" on the long, tumultuous "up 'n down" saga of Marissa Mayer and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) because it reminds me so much of one of the biggest stories I covered early on in my career – Kodak.

You see, I was there to watch that company essentially write its own obituary as a Fortune 500 company, just like Yahoo did.

Since 2014, I've made the case that Marissa Mayer, bolstered with a $40 billion pre-IPO stake in Alibaba, could avoid a "Kodak moment" of sorts by using a time-tested strategy to make sure shareholders got the better, more profitable end of Yahoo's demise.

I have to say, watching Team Mayer fumble that easy play was profoundly disappointing, knowing how much better it could have been for folks who owned a piece of the company.

But, after all the drama, the slow death march for what was once Silicon Valley's brightest star is finally over.

And I'm pleased to tell you I couldn't be more excited for what's coming next - and not just because it looked like we'd never get here...

Dow Jones

Dow Jones News Today: Futures Rise as Investors Eye Morgan Stanley Earnings

The Dow Jones news today centers around another busy day of earnings reports and updates on economic activity from the Federal Reserve.

Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) topped Wall Street revenue expectations after the bell on Tuesday. That news that pushed shares up 0.3% in premarket hours.

Here's a look at today's most important market events and stocks, plus a look at today's economic calendar...

IPOs

Our Chart Shows What Would Have Happened If You Invested $1,000 in the Facebook, Google, eBay, Yahoo, and Amazon IPOs

In the last 21 years, these five Internet tech IPOs – Facebook, eBay, Amazon, Alphabet, and Yahoo – have grown massively. They now combine for a market cap of $1.5 trillion.

We'll show you how much investors who bought $1,000 worth of stock at their IPO share price would have profited.

But we'll also show you how Wall Street takes advantage of investors when it comes to IPOs - and how you can beat them.