Yahoo Stock Hits 5-Year Low

Internet giant hit by failures, poor economy, falls to lowest trading value since .com bust Once offered $32/ a share to merge with Microsoft, Jerry Yang's Yahoo Inc. is in financial trouble. The giant's stock closed Thursday at $15.58/share -- a five year low. Not since its meteoric rise and fall with the dot com boom and bust between 1999 to 2001 had its stock traded at such low levels.

While today shares have risen slightly to just over $16/share, they still remain at lows not seen in at least 5 years, leaving Yahoo with very tough questions. The latest fall is just an episode in a steady decline that has been taking place over the last several months.

Yahoo is betting big that its advertising deal with Google will go through, but there's much uncertainty there. The Department of Justice is under pressure to oversee the deal and may nix it, if it feels Google is gaining too much advertising control from it. Further, the deal may fare even worse internationally in places such as the EU, which have stricter antitrust laws.