Yahoo! rises on break-up news

Yahoo! (YHOO) rises on break-up news

Filed under: Major movement, Earnings reports, Analyst reports, Forecasts, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO)

No one seems satisfied with the plans that Sue Decker and Jerry Yang, Yahoo!'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) new management, have made for the company. Concerns about slow growth of display ads and a mediocre launch of the Panama search product have caused more grumbling among investors. No one thinks Q3 numbers are going to be impressive.

Yahoo! is up 3.5% this morning. 24/7 Wall St. published a summary of a report from Bernstein Research which shows that if the portal were broken into three pieces, the company would be worth $39 a share. The stock has been trading below $27.

The break-up document shows that Yahoo! should be cut into three pieces. The first is the display ad business. The second is the search business. And, the third is Yahoo!'s subscription operation. Bernstein is convinced that the three operations would do better with new owners For example, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) would do a better job of getting money from the Yahoo! search operation.

Bernstein earlier offered another option for Yahoo!. Out-source search to Google and cut 25% of total staff. The research house says that operating income would rise 206% next year compared to consensus numbers.

It is unlikely that Yahoo! management will take any of this advice, but the analysis does make one thing clear. The company is worth more than it stock price says.