Can Frank Quattrone convince Yahoo to manipulate their earnings?

"Almost-felon" Frank Quattrone's strategy to stop Yahoo from being bought by Microsoft has two parts, or so I've been told:

1) Enact a poison-pill advertising deal between Google and Yahoo so that any purchase would hamstring Microsoft for years to come.

2) Coach Yahoo execs on how to "juice" their earnings numbers today so that they can get the stock to pop to around 40 dollars a share, which would then help them in a proxy fight against Microsoft with their current bid- Yahoo would be able to point to the new "juiced" stock price and tell current shareholders that Microsoft's offer is woefully low.

Considering Steve Ballmer came out today on the newswires to announce that no matter what earnings Yahoo reports today, Microsoft is not going to raise their bid- it's pretty clear that Quattrone's step #2 is already a given and Microsoft knows it.

Jerry Yang had a decision to make- give up and meekly accept the invevitable, or try a last chance manipulation of today's earnings and hope he can get away with it.  I'm betting he's going take the stock manipulation choice.

As a result, I'm buying a boatload of Yahoo calls right now- I think Yahoo's stock is going to have a 10 to 20 percent jump after hours.  They're going to torture their earnings statement, and they're going to proclaim that business has never been better and the company's outlook has never been brighter.  This script has already been written. Jerry Yang really doesn't have any other choice.

There's also the outside chance that Yahoo will announce that Google has offered to buy their company in an all-stock transaction, considering that Quattrone's stock manipulation has added over 40 billion dollars to Google's market cap in the last two days, which amounts to quite a bit more than Microsoft's offer. So they could technically "afford" it.

Even though such a purchase would never pass government scrutiny because of the obvious monopoly implications, the fact is that throwing a higher offer on the table will even further juice Yahoo's stock.  After all, Google recently admitted that they gamed the FCC 700mhz spectrum auction by putting in a shill bid that they never intended to follow through on, just to raise the price that Verizon had to eventually pay and trigger the covenants that would force open access to the spectrum.

Comments

[parpmcsnooble]

WOW!! What a SAGE and a PROPHET you are!!!

All those stock tips from the guy who got the GOOG profits declaration SO WRONG and LOST AGAIN!!

Man, like anybody is going to take note of a dropkick like you.

The Google collaboration with Yahoo has been well-documented for a month. It's no secret.
Yang trying everything to evade MSFT is no secret: I mean...do you actually like the idea of MSFT running YHOO? Are you insane?

And GOOG running up the cost of spectrum auction...that is business, isn't it? I mean, they would be negligent NOT to make it tough on their competitors...can you dig that? Do you get that?

And Google may choose to announce that they may choose to buy YHOO...did you get that from an 'insider'?

Laughing at you, fool.

[Marah Marie]

Technically, "poopisnoble' or whatever your name is, admin got it right. Quick study of the figures proves GOOG should've reported down or at best flat for the quarter *even at the lowered valuation* that they got based on last quarter's performance but currency valuations at the time of the earnings call gave them a boost, along with how they changed their tax rate to pump the earnings up a bit more and even the fact that they didn't count their Doubleclick purchase as a purchase but you knew that already because it's obvious from reading your other trolls on this blog that you work for the big Gee. You work for the Euro branch and you seem to have your head up your butt on account of that (the Euros seem more focused on where Google is becoming the biggest advertising company than on earnings) so maybe that explains your seeming ignorance..or else maybe you're just riding admin for all it's worth because he keeps giving you a huge run for your money. Oh, the drama! Earth to "poopisnoble": You are a crashing bore. Get a life?

[Justanotherwaiter]

*Patting noblepoop on the head*

You amuse me.

[poopmcsnooble]

Well, Marah, as if I work for Google. I wish!! The lobster tails on Monday, the foit gras on Tuesday...the TGIF!!!

Actually, I get my leads from where the author of this blog gets them..Valleywag, TechCrunch, FSJ...I sure as heck don't get them from Google. And neither does our glorious admin, who seems to be failing ignominiously with the 'insider tips'.

Google emply...what...16,000 odd people? You would think he could do better than to just spout second-hand 'maybe..could be...should be..."gossip...donchathink?

There's something tragic about a site that so wants to be hardcore, but is in fact ultimately lame. Pud would be turning in his grave, if he were dead.

[koufax1234]

1st question: how much are those calls worth now?

2nd question: do you know what a shill bid is? if no one had bid over them, google would have been required to pay for the spectrum.

[poopmcsnoople]

Yeah, fair point. Just how much did admin make out his informed decision to buy YHOO? 20% increase in the stock....FAIL!!!

Laughing at you. You shoulda names this site www.fuckedfuckedgoogle.com.