Yahoo Activist: "I Give Up"

For nearly two years, I’ve been engaged in an activist campaign aimed at improving the performance of Yahoo (YHOO). No more. I sold my fund’s stake last month. The risk/reward ratio of continuing to hold the stock had become too high.

When I started my activism with Yahoo, I was attracted to the Internet company’s strong brand, which continues to drive impressive traffic to its many popular properties. It’s still the No. 2 search engine in the world and it’s also No. 1 for email.

Any new Web company has no hope of emulating those numbers. Microsoft (MSFT), with its online services division, has been trying to achieve credible numbers in all those areas for the last 12 years–with little success to show for its efforts.

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