SHARES of Yahoo fell 22 percent in premarket trading as hopes for the once dominant search engine dimmed on the withdrawal of a US$43.7 billion bid from Microsoft Corp. over the weekend.

Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang is convinced that the company he started in a Silicon Valley trailer 14 years ago was worth more than the money Microsoft Corp. had offered for the Internet pioneer. Now he may only have a few months to convince Wall Street that his rebuff of Microsoft’s takeover bid was a smart move — and if he can’t, analysts won’t be surprised if Yang is either replaced as CEO or forced to consider accepting a lower offer if Microsoft comes knocking at his door again.

“This squarely puts the pressure on Jerry Yang to deliver results and shareholder value,” Standard & Poor’s equity analyst Scott Kessler said. “You are going to see a lot of shareholders just throwing in the towel because they are going to realize it’s going to take a while for the stock to get back to where it was Friday.”

The backlash is expected to begin this week when Kessler and other analysts believe Yahoo’s stock price will surrender most, if not all, of its 50 percent gain since Microsoft made its initial offer Jan. 31.

(SD-Agencies)