Search Party Rocks as Yahoo! Buys Inktomi

One of the few financially healthy Internet survivors just snapped up a fallen icon.

Yahoo! (YHOO Quote) said Monday that it's buying former Internet highflier Inktomi (INKT Quote) for $1.65 a share, or about $250 million.

The deal, which Yahoo! says will enable it to expand its search-related business, is yet another example of how Wall Street's great expectations for Internet technology have been disappointed by realities of exhausted growth and declining stocks. The purchase price for Inktomi amounts to about 1% of its early-2000 market value. Back then, the company's $200-plus share price translated into a market capitalization of $24 billion. ...