This past month has seen tremendous market volatility, but it’s still worth pointing out that Yahoo! is near a five-year low. The company could have been taken over by Microsoft and returned shareholders more than $13 billion above its recent value. Ouch. This is a tremendous hit.

So many companies consider Microsoft (News - Alert) to be an enemy and, obviously, Yahoo! has competed with Microsoft for a number of years. But why does Yahoo! not seem like it is reenergized after this deal broke off? From the outside, it seems like there is no momentum at all.

In a slowing economy, advertisers look to spend money where there is immediate accountability. Don't get me wrong: I respect Yahoo! a tremendous amount... If you are looking for information on virtually any topic, you can find it on Yahoo!. Moreover, it seems everyone I know goes to Yahoo! for some reason each day. Its Finance portal is second to none, for example.

What I can't understand is why the company cannot monetize its traffic more effectively.

In April of last year, I covered this topic peripherally and specifically I discussed a candid Business 2.0 interview with Yahoo!'s (News - Alert) Usama Fayyad, the company's Executive Vice President of Research & Strategic Data Solutions. Fayyad is a veteran of Microsoft and NASA and has numerous degrees such as PHD and has published more than 100 technical articles in data mining and AI.

Here are some of the quotes I cited:

 

 

I agree with Fayyad. It is beyond scary to think of how effective Yahoo! can become if it actually shows advertisers higher click-through and purchase rates as a result of churning the mountains of data it owns.

The stars are aligned. Advertisers want more accountability and the Web is the place where accountability lives. Yahoo! has the most traffic, tons of analytical data and smart people who can figure out how best to place ads for maximal efficiency.

By now, Yahoo! should own the world. Many people say the disconnect is a corporate culture of complacency and bureaucracy. Although I have no first-hand knowledge of this, I can't imagine what else is keeping Yahoo! from making new highs in the market and really taking over the advertising world.

What do you think?