Here’s How Yahoo! Would React to a Marissa Mayer Departure -- Tech Roundup

SunTrust's analysts say the question they're asked most about Yahoo! is what will happen to its stock if CEO Marissa Mayer is sent packing. Here's what they found.
By Mathew Schwartz ,

Yahoo! (YHOO) investors are worried, and with good reason. High-level departures have shaken up the management team, there are serious questions about the possible tax liabilities in the spinoff of its remaining Alibaba (BABA) - Get Report stake, and its core business remains pallid.

But the analysts at SunTrust say the question they're asked most about Yahoo! is this: If CEO Marissa Mayer is finally sent packing, what will it do to the stock price? In a note released Monday, they revealed the results of their research.

To sum up, SunTrust surveyed industry watchers and concluded there's a host of great candidates to follow Mayer's unfortunately unimpressive tenure.

On SunTrust's top 10 likely list, Scout Media Chairman Ross Levinsohn (and a one-time interim CEO of Yahoo!), Chegg (CHGG) - Get Report CEO Dan Rosensweig (formerly COO of Yahoo!), and Facebook (FB) - Get Report COO Sheryl Sandberg are just a few of the standout names. Beyond that, they offered intriguing lists of "less likely" and "unlikely" candidates that included AOL head Tim Armstrong and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington.

In fact, SunTrust is now less worried about the who, and more concerned about the how. To quote the note, "A drawn-out process that lasts months in the middle of a complex separation wouldn't be ideal. However, a highly targeted, diligent process that focuses on some proven, experienced talent would likely be well received."

In other words, if Yahoo! acts quickly and decisively to pick a new CEO, the stock price will rise -- almost regardless of whom they pick. If the company waffles, investors will get more nervous.

Speaking of nervous, SunTrust is still slightly edgy about the whole massive tax bill risk around the Alibaba spinoff. But only slightly -- "Given the overwhelming likelihood that the Aabaco spin is treated as tax-free, we maintain Buy rating and $40 [price target]" they wrote.

Yahoo! closed Monday up 2.6% at $33.81.

Cyber Monday was too much of a good thing for Target (TGT) - Get Report : Heavy traffic crashed Target.com at around 10 a.m. ET Monday, Reuters reported.

Would-be online shoppers, needless to say, were irked. But the nation's No. 4 retailer shouldn't feel too much like it has a bull's eye painted on it. Since Thursday, when holiday sales went full steam, Walmart  (WMT) - Get Report , Neiman Marcus, PayPal  (PYPL) - Get Report and L Brands' (LB) - Get Report  Victoria's Secret, among others, have had crashes and slowdowns, too.

Target closed Monday down 1.3% at $72.50.

What wasn't getting voraciously shopped for on Cyber Monday? Stocks. The markets dipped through the afternoon as worries that the big shopping day wasn't going to be big enough. According to the National Retail Federation, about 121 million shoppers planned to shop online on Monday, down from 126.9 million on Cyber Monday 2015.

On the other hand, according to Tamara Gaffney, a principal research analyst at Adobe Digital Index, Cyber Monday is on track to hit a record $3 billion in sales, which would be an increase of 12% over last year and the strongest online sales day of the year.

For now, we must all await more solid numbers, which will arrive long before Santa does.

Sorry, Marty McFly: It may be 2015, but we're not going to see flying cars become common any time soon. However, Amazon's (AMZN) - Get Report plans for unmanned flying delivery drones are anything but a Hollywood pipe dream.

On Monday, the online retail giant posted a new video showcasing real footage of its latest model drone making an urgent (though admittedly fictional) delivery run. Narrated by Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, the video shows off a boxy-looking -- but fast -- VTOL drone that can travel up to 15 miles, and deliver a pair of sneakers, for example, as rapidly as Domino's can bring you a pepperoni and mushroom pie.

All it will take to really get Amazon Prime Air off the ground is for the FAA to iron out how to regulate such drones, and the agency says it intends to finalize regulations by the end of next year.

Amazon closed Monday down 1.3% at $664.80.

Here's news that will be music to the ears of Apple (AAPL) - Get Report fans who are also Sonos users: Getting in just under the wire to fulfill a promise it made in June, the wireless speaker company will be ready for Apple Music to stream through its speakers shortly, reports Buzzfeed. The public Apple Music beta will open on Dec. 15, will full accessibility coming early next year. Sonos was already compatible with many popular streaming music services, but it took a little extra time to bring in the new Apple Music service to ensure that the integration was clean.

Apple closed Monday up 0.4% at $118.30.

Finally, Swatch may make you think more of 1980s fashion than the latest in wearable technology, but don't count the company out of the 21st century quite yet. As TechCrunch has reported, Visa (V) - Get Report and Swatch are partnering to allow the soon-to-be-released Bellamy watch to handle financial transactions using NFC technology.

Previous deals will let wearers buy things by waving their watches in Asia -- the Visa agreement will bring the United States, Switzerland and Brazil into the mix. It's fashion that ticks ... and pays.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.

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