Ongoing Campaign to Invigorate Yahoo(YHOO) and an Options Strategy
This entry was posted on 22 Jan 2007, 11:21 AM and is filed under Finance,YHOO,Other Blogs,options,My Portfolio Trades.
Eric Jackson's Campaign to create shareholder value at Yahoo (
YHOO) continues. He is still small relative to the total size of Yahoo but I hope he will continue to gather momentum. Mr. Jackson is using every tool in the Web 2.0 arsenal; he's created a
Wiki for the campaign,
flickr group, a
YouTube video channel and a of course
his blog.
Let me say that I am a Yahoo fan. For years
MyYahoo.com has been my browser startup page; I pay to use Yahoo enhanced email; I have over 2000 photos on
flickr; I find
Yahoo finance to be almost as good as
Bloomberg but without the $1800 a month pricetag; I have even been using Yahoo's search recently and find it so greatly improved that I don't need
Google as much.
In expectation that this campaign might gather more momentum and seeing that it is getting more press coverage, I recently added to my Yahoo (
YHOO) position through a
buy/write. On Jan 17th I bought Yahoo shares at $28.97 and sold
Jan 2008 35 strike calls for $1.95. I have a net cost at expiration of $27.02 and will not have any upside beyond $35.00. (As of today Jan 22, Yahoo has fallen to $27.50 and the options to $1.50. This same buy/write could be had today for a much better net price of $26.00.)
I did a technocrati search for my blog and found coverage on the Plan "B" campaign from
Publicidad y marketing en la red, a Spanish language blog. My first appearance in Spanish.
Here are the stats on Eric Jackson's Plan "B" for Yahoo taken from his
Breakout Performance Blog.
- "Plan B" Advocacy Launched: 1/7/07
- Current YHOO Shares Owned: 90K
- Current YHOO Shares' Value: $2.4MM
- YHOO's TSR since Launch: -0.36%
- GOOG's TSR since Launch: 0.53%
- NASDAQ's TSR since Launch: 0.70%
- Relative Shareholder Value Created to GOOG: ($21,706)
Disclosures and Confessions: I own Yahoo and
plan to pledge my shares to the campaign. However, if the shares rise
above $35 I'm likely to start selling. I'm short Jan 2008 35 strike
calls against half my position of YHOO and am also short Jan 2008 30
strike puts.
I like Yahoo!. For years MyYahoo.com has been my browser startup page; I pay to use Yahoo enhanced email; I have over 2000 photos on flickr; I find Yahoo finance to be almost as good as Bloomberg but
without the $1800 a month price tag; I have even been using Yahoo's
search recently and find it so greatly improved that I don't need Google as much.
Disclaimer:
Nothing in this blog is meant to be specific financial advice or a
recommendation to buy or sell. I do not give investment advice. Do
your own research. Do not rely on anything in this weblog to make
investment decisions. I do not log all my trades here. I only describe
or mention those that I think might be interesting. Consult an
investment professional familiar with your specific financial situation
before buying or selling any security.