Hope you sold your Yahoo stock

The story by Kenneth Corbin is about the troubles at Yahoo, now that Google left them holding an empty bag:

With Yahoo's planned advertising partnership with Google now in tatters, industry observers are left wondering what happened -- and what's next for the embattled Web pioneer.
The agreement would have seen Google sell ads against underperforming keywords on Yahoo's (NASDAQ: YHOO) search pages.
Yahoo struck the deal as it was seeking to reverse its slipping fortunes and facing intense pressure from shareholders frustrated with the stop-start acquisition talks with Microsoft. Hours after announcing that negotiations with Microsoft had formally ended, the Web portal had come forward with details about the Google deal, touting the partnership as a path to an additional $800 million in annual revenue.
Yesterday, however, Yahoo expressed dismay that its newest partner had also withdrawn its hand, bowing to the threat of legal action from federal antitrust authorities. "Yahoo continues to believe in the benefits of the agreement and is disappointed that Google has elected to withdraw from the agreement rather than defend it in court," the company said.
Officials from the Department of Justice telephoned the companies yesterday morning and informed them that it planned to file an antitrust lawsuit to block the deal. Google responded that it would terminate the agreement, and immediately notified Yahoo of its plan. The DoJ had been reviewing the deal since it was signed in June, investigating the anticompetitive implications of an alliance between the top two companies in search advertising. The department hired a top antitrust litigator to shore up its case, and the companies twice delayed their planned implementation date.
Because they were not merging, the companies did not need formal approval to move ahead with the deal. However, they agreed to the voluntary delay to accommodate the review, which was joined by 15 states' attorneys general. In its investigation, the DoJ determined that search advertising and search syndication are both relevant antitrust markets. Regulators worried that the tie-up would have led Yahoo to gradually cede its search business to Google as it became accustomed to the increased revenue from imported ads. "The primary concern was that Yahoo would become almost overly reliant on Google's ads," the source told InternetNews.com.
Yahoo insisted that it would use the additional revenue to invest in its own search technology, and that it would continue to compete vigorously with its larger rival, but regulators were unconvinced.
"The arrangement likely would have denied consumers the benefits of competition -- lower prices, better service and greater innovation," Thomas Barnett, the assistant attorney general in charge of the DoJ's antitrust division, said in a statement.
Google and Yahoo had proposed modifications to the arrangement to make it more palatable to regulators, but ultimately they reached an impasse. After several iterations, they offered to cap the portion of Yahoo's search revenue that came from Google ads at 25 percent. They also proposed shortening the term of the agreement from 10 years to two, with no renewal clause, but neither of those two concessions satisfied the DoJ.
The agreement also had sparked fierce opposition from many advertisers who feared that the net effect would be higher prices and a less competitive market. Google cited this as a key reason for dropping out.
Last month, as it became clear that the government's objections to the Google-Yahoo deal were significant, rumors began circulating that Microsoft might be interested in renewing talks with Yahoo, prompting the software giant to issue this statement: "Our position hasn't changed. Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo; there are no discussions between the companies."

Rico says Yahoo! is doomed, and won't be missed...