Yahoo! CEO says company is positioned to benefit from growing online advertising market

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., Feb. 14 - Yahoo! Inc. co-founder and chief executive officer Jerry Yang, in a letter to stockholders, highlighted the company's strengths following Yahoo!'s rejection of Microsoft Corp.'s offer to acquire the company.

Yang said Yahoo! is "uniquely positioned" to capitalize on the global online advertising market, which is expected to grow to $75 billion in 2010 from $45 billion in 2007.

According to Yang, Yahoo!'s strengths include:

• Its global brand;

• Its cash balance of more than $2 billion at Dec. 31;

• Its attractiveness as a marketing partner; and

• Its substantial, unconsolidated investments in Japan and China.

"Today, Yahoo! is a faster-moving, better-organized, more nimble company than it was just a few months ago," Yang said in the letter.

"We have redeployed our resources to drive Yahoo!'s key strategic priorities - taking important steps to streamline our organization and close down or scale back businesses that don't support these critical growth initiatives," Yang added.

Yahoo! is well on its way to "transforming the experiences of Yahoo!'s users, advertisers, publishers and developers" as part of the company's plan to create stockholder value, according to the letter.

Yang said Yahoo!'s goal is "to grow visits to key Yahoo! starting points and properties, where users enter the internet, by 15% per year over the next several years."

The company is also looking at ways to more easily connect online advertisers with consumers such as through its partnerships with eBay, Comcast and AT&T.

On Feb. 11, Yahoo!'s board unanimously concluded that Microsoft's unsolicited proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and its stockholders.

Microsoft proposed acquiring Yahoo! in a stock and cash deal valued at $44.6 billion, or $31 per share.

Yahoo! provides internet services. The company is based in Sunnyvale, Calif.

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