Jerry Yang: Throne of Blood

Yahoo is certainly embracing its new market underperform rating, isn’t it? With rumors of December layoffs in the wind, shares in the company are trading in the $11 range today, after dipping below $12 Wednesday to yet another new 52-week low. That’s about half the price that Mithras Capital Partners suggested Yahoo sell itself to Microsoft last week, a little more than a third of Microsoft’s (MSFT) $31-per-share offer, which Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang claimed “massively undervalued” it, and almost a quarter of the $40-a-share valuation Yahoo believed it deserved.

Appalling. At $11.51, Yahoo’s (YHOO) stock price at this very moment, the company is trading at well below replacement value. “Spend $15 billion, and you could not build a new Yahoo today–not one with this global reach and brand,” Henry Blodget notes over at Silicon Alley Insider. “Wringing compelling upside out of the stock at $12 is not rocket science. At this price, it’s not even basic arithmetic. So we say again: Yahoo at $12 is ridiculous.”

Ridiculous, indeed. Perhaps the government will come along and offer Yahoo a nice $31-per-share bailout–you know, just to bolster investor confidence.