While today's index levels closed up in positive territory, that is only part of the story. The major equity index levels were far higher after the open today. Retail sales rose more than expected but the sell-off we saw earlier in oil did not hold and oil prices took the gas away from us. Fed governor Plosser's comments about "rates need to rise" didn't help matters. Below are today's unofficial closing levels:

• DJIA 12141.58 (+57.81)
• S&P500 1339.87 (+4.38)
• NASDAQ 2404.35 (+10.34)
• 10YR T-NOTE 4.205% (+0.132%)
• Major list of 52-Week Lows
• Top 10 Analyst Calls
• 2008 IPO's up 50% or more

Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (NYSE: BUD) shares were up almost 5% by the final minutes of trading at $61.29 after InBev confirmed a $65.00 initial buyout offer for the beer giant last night. Interestingly enough, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) will have pocketed several hundred million dollars on this if you see his current holdings.

The day after former Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) CEO Terry Semel severed his ties with the company, Yahoo! gets an official bid from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) for over $44 billion. Just this week, Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang gave a bleak outlook for the company and shares nosedived. Could Yahoo! possibly have any more news this week? Sheesh.

Let's stick to Semel. The former Warner Bros. star took Yahoo! under his wing back in 2002 and for all intents and purposes, guided the company from the bust days of the dot-com implosion to a business based on display advertising and paid services.

Too bad Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) came along and soundly thrashed Yahoo! in every possible way, which lead to Semel's ouster in 2007 and what could be considered corporate theft with his preposterous exit package. Even Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang's return to the CEO spot can't stop this company from floundering, while Google continues to thrive.

So, it comes as no surprise that Semel, who did not leave his board of directors position when he stepped down (er, was pushed down) from the CEO spot, finally left his board seat yesterday and severed ties with Yahoo! If someone else hires Semel because of some alleged starpower, they'll be getting a CEO who didn't do much in his 5+ year tenure at the former largest web property on the planet. Perhaps Microsoft can hire him as an adviser to its proposed acquisition?

Another year, another round of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) acquisition chatter. But would any company really want to acquire Yahoo? A market cap of over $33 billion should be enough to give any company pause, and with its growth rate and profitability teetering along at the age-old web giant, the price of admission is probably too high. Forget Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) -- that would be the worst mistake the software company could make. Anyone else? A show of hands please?

Jerry Yang, now the company's CEO, and David Filo desperately want a turnaround at the company they founded. Once the highest flier on the web scene, Yahoo! has been dragged down by the rapid ascension of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Yahoo!, which still has a lot to offer, made a bad bet on its version of text advertising while Google walked off into the sunset with a formula that worked. Add that to former CEO Terry Semel's apparent incompetence in trying to balance paid services against comparable free services from the competition, and you get a company that is in a funk right now.

Most likely, Yahoo! will not be acquired by another company, although it will continue to ring up partnerships to enhance its bottom line. Still, the core functionality of the company is at stake here, and there's miles of work to be done in 2008 -- which will be a make or break year. Even at $10 billion, it's hard to fathom who would want to purchase Yahoo! That means the company is in it for the long haul, and the competition from Microsoft and Google will only get hotter from here.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007. Voting has now closed and, in a close race, readers have chosen Chuck Prince as the best CEO departure of the year. Let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

When looking back at 2007, there were some larger-than-life CEO departures that semi-rocked the business world and brought some investors to the realization of over-the-top compensation yet again. Let's look at a few and then you can decide the winner. Sound good?

First up comes Bill Ford, Jr., from the automotive industry. Under Ford's leadership, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) lost its way in terms of correctly forecasting what kind of vehicles customers actually wanted, in addition to becoming horribly leveraged. As soon as gas prices began shooting up, Ford Motor started spiraling down. Long-time Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) executive Alan Mulally was brought in to replace Ford as the automaker's CEO just in the nick of time. Ford Motor's expected profitability date with Ford now gone: 2009.

How about Bob Nardelli, formerly CEO of Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD)? Nardelli made global headlines by making tens of millions while leading Home Depot shares to the basement and apparently making all kinds of bad decisions that finally led to his ouster this year. On top of that, his severance package made a Brad Pitt paycheck seem like pennies, and Home Depot shareholders paid for it. Did Home Depot stakeholders get a voice in this corporate travesty? A small one, perhaps.

Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) recently up $2.40 to $33.74:

www.Alibaba.com, a Chinese internet company, is expected to be IPO'd on the Hong Kong bourse on November 6th. YHOO made a $1.4 billion investment in 39% of Alibaba in 2005. YHOO Chairman of the Board Terry Semel sold 850,000 shares of YHOO at $30.47 October 23-24, according to Dow Jones. YHOO call option volume of 503,701 contracts compares to put volume of 52,600 contracts. YHOO November option implied volatility of 50 is above its 26-week average of 37 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risk.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) recently up $2.91 to $34.90:

Pacific Growth Equities says " Blowout F1Q results; conservative guidance leave room for additional upside if the sales momentum continues." MSFT call option volume of 353,588 contracts compares to put volume of 114,142 contracts. MSFT November option implied volatility of 25 is below a pre-EPS level of 32 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing risk.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

When Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) co-founder Jerry Yang returned to the CEO role this past summer, he gave investors and watching employees a "100-day review" speech that basically gave Yang time to study, assess and form solutions on getting the internet behemoth back on track for higher growth levels and ensuring it wasn't losing ad revenue to the competition.

Well, that 100 days is now nearly over with, and even the few acquisitions (BlueLithium and Zimbra) that Yahoo! has made recently have not quenched the irrational desire of analysts who aren't satisfied until immediate results happen. This is, of course, so unrealistic it's laughable. Any analyst should know drastic changes take time to work, aside from massive layoffs that can immediately affect a company's finances. This is not the case with Yahoo!, which is trying desperately to keep up with competitor Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) in the space for online advertising.

Although Yang has professed that nothing within the company is a "sacred cow," industry watchers may be already impatient in waiting for the company to somehow reinvent its business to capture more growth that Google appears to be hauling in by the truckload at the moment. Nothing so far looks like the "radical surgery" that many pundits probably thought would happen, and with Google set to deliver Q3 results this Thursday, the pressure cooker may become even more intense soon.

Another part of former CEO Terry Semel's strategy at Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is being readied for a sale, as Yahoo's Kelkoo online shopping comparison site will probably go up on the bidding block soon. Kelkoo was purchased by Yahoo! in 2004 for roughly $670 million and was to be the premier price comparison shopping resource for all of Europe. Alas, as Yahoo! streamlines its strategy and dumps off non-core pieces of its business, this one too may be gone soon.

Yahoo! has already shut down its own photos website and plans to close its podcast service later this year, so the company seems to be wasting no time unloading non-core assets as it tries to get back to making money in several core areas while maintaining a lean offered-services structure. A few years ago, Yahoo! offered so much to so many that it was hard not to think of it as having a strategy of "offering something for everybody." Problem is, many of those areas distracted it from core businesses and could not stand on their own right. With company co-founder Jerry Yang in charge now, some Yahoo! services are finally being scuttled, as they should have been long ago. Even Yahoo! Music is facing some cutbacks, although a complete shutdown is seen as unlikely.

Although a Yahoo! spokesperson stated that "one of the priorities we have identified is improving the performance of Kelkoo -- our online shopping business." By improving, perhaps he meant getting the service in shape to sell off to someone else. In terms of online comparison shopping, it's hard to see why Yahoo! needed to play in a crowded field dominated by larger players like eBay, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: EBAY) shopping.com and many others like it.

The official election is more than a year away; but the Democratic party is trouncing the Republics in the CEO money primary. According to Bloomberg News, some of George W. Bush's top 2004 fund-raisers, are now helping Democrats running for president.

Among the 60 executives writing checks to Democrats such as Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois are these formerly pro-Bush CEOs:

• Morgan Stanley's (NYSE: MS) CEO John Mack, a Bush Ranger, held a fund-raiser for Clinton in July. He wrote to his executives "I personally believe that [the best] person [running for president in 2008] is Hillary Clinton."
• Yahoo Inc.'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) former CEO Terry Semel gave $2,000 to Bush in 2004 and $50,000 to the Republican National Committee. Semel has given the maximum, $4,600, to Clinton and $2,300 to Obama.
• News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) CEO Rupert Murdoch, who donated $25,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2004, has given Clinton $2,300.

After last month's brouhaha when Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) announced that Terry Semel was resigning his CEO post and co-founder Jerry Yang was taking the reigns, the company has gone rather quiet. Can't blame Yahoo for the peace and quiet.

Yang has to wrap his arms around the company and that will take time. Even though he is the co-founder, the role of CEO encompasses the daily grind of evaluating business units, the progress or lack of progress piece by piece. Yahoo could almost be forgiven if it misses its June quarter. In fact, investors would almost welcome the event.

Professional portfolio managers like it when an incoming CEO absolutely cleans house and wipes the slate clean for a new beginning. With that process comes the exercise of lowering near-term expectations, thus allowing for the desired joy of under-promising and over-delivering. The best time for this cleansing is after a new CEO's first quarter on the job. All the bad stuff gets blamed on the ousted CEO, while the new CEO gets to reset the bar.

Yahoo! is far behind Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) in so many areas like search engine, advertising programs, etc. The best course of action that Jerry Yang can take now is to right the ship, set the revenue and earnings expectations to realistic, yet beatable numbers and potentially set up the company for a wealthier parent. Yahoo!, at the end of the day, should merge with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) if either company intends to effectively compete with Google. Otherwise it is game, set and match.

Georges Yared is the Chief Investment Strategist of Yared Investment Research.

Here it is, right in front of you, the opportunity of a lifetime for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO). With the Rivals.com deal now in hand, making Yahoo a larger internet sports media interest than ESPN, the iron is hot and ready to strike a working partnership between Yahoo! and ESPN. If the two entities can hammer something out that makes full use of each companies strengths, we would most probably witness the birth of an internet sports composite that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) couldn't touch. Wouldn't it be nice to see Yahoo! as the undeniable leader in something? Admit it to yourself, Yahoo! deserves it.

I have no idea if there have been corporate discussions regarding such a working partnership, but you must consider that Yahoo! and ESPN are more than a little aware of each other, and if there's one thing that Yahoo! must be tired of right about now it would be the concept of vainly slugging it out with other large internet properties.

Let us watch carefully to see if some new strategies start seeping out of Yahoo! Perhaps Jerry Yang has secretly been waiting for Terry Semel to be dislodged before instigating some new ideas. If I held Yahoo! shares right now I'd be very hesitant to sell them, and I'd even consider adding a few. Yahoo! has been floundering, but it is far from being counted out. I repeat my conviction that if Yahoo! will just just try to forget about Google and begin to cut it's own swath, it will do far better in the long run than by continuing to beat its head against the "Great Wall of Google."

A certain number of large cap stock disappoint every quarter. Usually their stocks get punished in the days and weeks after. Solid quarterly numbers with weak guidance can be just as bad. But, there are some companies that give off signal or compete in industries where the competitive trends are working against them.

A few red flag companies:

Ford (NYSE: F): Some members of the Ford family want to retain bankers to see if they can cash out their shares. Sales of the important F-series pick-ups and Explorer lines are falling faster than forecast. Even with labor negotiations coming up, costs may not fall.

After yesterday's no-surprise announcement that Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) CEO Terry Semel would resign his post and take the role of non-executive chairman, I was confused as to why Semel even wants to stay with Yahoo!

Semel already has gotten a huge payday, so it looks like he's sticking around so the board can save face, which is disgusting. Yet again, executives are rewarded while shareholders get stiffed. I'm glad I don't own Yahoo or I would have Semel's head on a platter.

Still, you have to wonder what in the world is going on in Sunnyvale. Company co-founder Jerry Yang is stepping in as CEO (for some odd reason) instead of seasoned executive Susan Decker, who is taking over as president, thankfully.

Yahoo! will never regain its former glory.

2001 was a long, long time ago. In the ever-evolving world of technology, six years can be measured in dog-years: one dog year equals seven human years. Terry Semel rode in to Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) as the savior, the professional manager who would move this absolutely cool company to the next level. The space was evolving and revolving in a huge way. Nobody could even put a bona-fide growth rate on the internet search/ marketing/advertising/communication field. Semel thought he had entered a marathon.

In 2001, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) was only three years old, as the company was founded in 1998. The secrecy surrounding Google was legendary, yet weird. Google was formidable, but it was also private. Numbers were never confirmed, but people in the know whispered Google was catching Yahoo and knocking it from its premier position. Google was gathering headlines and believers while Yahoo! was reporting good, not great, or consistent quarterly numbers. The technology media and its close-followers knew Google was catching Yahoo!, it was only a matter of time.

The world realized in 2004 that Google was also running a marathon, but with a sprinter's speed. Google completed its initial public offering in August 2004 and was crowned the winner: game, set and match. Immediately, the market propelled Google to a market capitalization that has surpassed Yahoo!'s. As of this writing, Yahoo! is a faint figure in Google's rear view mirror. Google is worth $160 billion while Yahoo! is a respectable $37 billion.

So ... Was CEO Terry Semel really so bad that he had to resign?

In a word, yes.

In my opinion, Terry Semel needed to be shown the door long ago and should have made a quiet, respectful and pride-saving exit from Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). I'm not happy with the way his resignation is now being handled either. He should be moving down the road to new and exciting endeavors, leaving Yahoo! to formulate its own new plans. Instead, he has gingerly stayed in his chairman role, in a non-executive role, hanging around like the brother-in-law who just wrecked your car and says he'll help you fix it.

Don't take my word for it, though. A flood of commentary from all across the web includes such things as:

"...it's safe to say, (the share holders) are not happy at all with the current performance and are sending a message loud and clear, Terry Semel's got to turn things around" - RSS Micro

What best symbolizes what went wrong at Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO)? How it handled the rise of financial blogging.

When looking up stock quotes on Yahoo Finance, there is a financial blog section -- but it only publishes blogs from Seeking Alpha and no one else. Why? Because Terry Semel, Yahoo's ousted CEO, applied the old-boys media network model to Internet programming -- partner with large and well-established media companies and split up the profits. Did this work? No.

"In Web 1.0, the publisher told you what to read, in web 2.0, the consumer is the boss," said Andy Monfried, president and founder of LOTAME, in a recent interview on Wallstrip.com. Monfried was a top executive at Advertising.com which he helped build into the leading third party advertising network which is now part of AOL.

"Click through rates and brand methods do not apply any more. The cost to buy the media from social media networks is so much less than portals and other resources that have content. Going forward, advertising is all about user-generated content," Monfried noted.

LOTAME stands for Local Target Media and wants to be the connector between local social content and advertisers such as a Myspace or Facebook with the local pizza guy or the national advertiser. Yahoo has preached for years of its desire to be the leader in bringing the Internet advertising model to the local guy, but it never succeeded. It is the user-generated content that is the missing link for success in this area and Semel never got it.

Yahoo is in big trouble. Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) figured out what was going to work and has won Web 2.0. For Yahoo to succeed it will have to find something it can do differently than Google, possibly aligning with Myspace.com, which was speculated yesterday on CNBC.

From an investment perspective, Yahoo's real estate position on the web is too big to pass up on. The Fly has blogged endlessly for the past year of Yahoo being a value stock and investors should jump into it and put it away. Our stance remains the same. A successfully run Yahoo has the potential to generate some big returns for shareholders.