Yahoo!’s revenue fell 13% to $1.324 billion in the fourth quarter. Net income dropped 5% to $296 million. Even with its new CEO, almost no one who watches the company thinks there is a solution to the ongoing shrinkage of sales.

Yahoo! will somehow add cash, perhaps over $10 billion, to its balance sheet through the sale or spinoff of Yahoo! Japan and its stake in Alibaba. The means by which it will handle those transactions are still an open question because of tax issues and the difficulties of negotiations with the two Asian companies. Neither of them has to make a transaction with Yahoo! now.

MSN and Aol already have huge online audiences. They have to find ways to increase sales from these visitors, but there is no proof that combining with Yahoo! will do that.

Companies that lack the scale that they need to augment their traditional media sales with larger online ones would find Yahoo! an important acquisition. It would allow them to marry their old world TV or print sales with a larger online audience. CBS had 79 million unique visitors in December, according to research firm Comscore. Viacom’s digital properties had about the same number. Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) had 50 million and Gannett (NYSE: GCI) had 44 million. None of these figures comes close to Yahoo!’s 176 million.

The troubles of traditional media are well understood. Public firms like CBS and Gannett face the erosion of television and print ad sales. Right now, their digital sales are insufficient to make up for that attrition. The chance to go to advertisers with packages that combine old media marketing with new may be their only chance to keep revenue advances — and happy shareholders.

Yahoo! has a market cap of $19 billion. Much of that is based on the value of Alibaba and Yahoo! Japan. Yahoo!’s core business may be worth less than $10 billion. That makes it an affordable purchase or merger candidate for most large traditional media companies, which have larger market values than Yahoo!.

The argument against a the ownership of Yahoo! by a traditional media company is that the older company would have no better chance to increase the portal’s revenue than MSN would. That is not true. Large advertisers continue to look for ways to reach huge audiences, some of which consume most media through traditional channels and some of which spend much of their time online. Yahoo!, in combination with a traditional media company, would offer the world’s largest marketers a chance to gain both through one firm.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Neil Ashe was the president of CBS (NYSE: CBS) Interactive before he moved to the job as president and CEO of Walmart’s Global eCommerce business. Walmart obviously has web operations outside America, but without a strong performance of the e-commerce business in its home country, its web division cannot succeed.

The choice of Ashe is a bit odd. He oversaw CBS Sports and News online, along with the tech site company CNET. He also ran the media firm’s overseas sites. The belief that stepping from content to e-commerce is likely to work is hard to explain.

The problem that Walmart has online is not directly related to who runs the e-commerce operations. Walmart’s U.S. store sales have not grown in the past year, and its U.S. revenue has barely increased. This is despite the fact that, after Amazon.com, Walmart’s sites are the second most visited e-commerce sites in America.

Walmart’s U.S. problems have been described as troubled in two ways. The first is that top merchandising executives at the company have done a poor job as they decide what inventory to put into their stores. The other is that Walmart’s price advantages are no longer substantial enough to keep customers from the decision to go to other retailers, like Target (NYSE: TGT). What Walmart cannot do with its bricks-and-mortar stores, it cannot accomplish online. An overall lack of demand cannot be made up by websites. Retailers like Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) have already proven this.

Walmart’s new online CEO will have his hands tied no matter how skillful and experienced he is. Well over 95% of Walmart’s sales are made in its stores, and in the U.S., the traffic to those stores has slowed. An adroit e-commerce operation, hampered by the same prices and inventories, will not do better than Walmart’s primary business.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) appoints a former CBS (NYSE: CBS) digital executive as head of its digital operations. (Reuters)

Disapproval of Congress hits an all-time high, according to a new Washington Post-ABC poll. (Reuters)

S&P downgrades the large eurozone bailout fund. (Reuters)

Auditors of Olympus are cleared of blame in the company’s financial scandal. (Reuters)

Samsung will make a $41 billion capital investment in the company this year. (Reuters)

Hackers compromise 24 million accounts at the Zappos division of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). (Reuters)

Federal officials become more active in examining the role S&P played in the mortgage credit crisis. (WSJ)

EU banks create new ways to help bolster their balance sheets, but these may not improve their cash positions. (WSJ)

Bonuses fall at Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS). (WSJ)

BMW and Volkswagen recall more than 500,000 vehicles. (WSJ)

More companies split the roles of chairman from CEO. (WSJ)

California hopes large IPOs will help its finances. (WSJ)

Nigerian unions halt strikes as the government agrees to again underwrite fuel prices. (WSJ)

Moody’s (NYSE: MDO) says it will review the status of its ratings of eurozone finances. (WSJ)

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi says the region’s problems are “very grave.” (WSJ)

Airbus will book double Boeing’s (NYSE: BA) orders this year, but the difference in revenue will be smaller. (WSJ)

U.S. companies continue to invest much more in machinery than labor. (WSJ)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) likely will produce new textbook systems optimized for the iPad. (WSJ)

CBS Sports website will open its operations so that app developers can offer fantasy sports software. (WSJ)

Executive perks tend to rise as CEOs get closer to retirement. (WSJ)

Private equity firms could get more scrutiny of leverage and tax approaches. (WSJ)

Iron ore prices fall along with demand. (WSJ)

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) card payment programs increase sales. (WSJ)

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) continues to have trouble adding features to its PlayBook tablet PC. (NYT)

Italy’s prime minister asks Germany to do more to lower loan costs because he worries about a voter revolt. (FT)

Saudi Arabia says its price target for oil rose to $100 to offset spending in the country. (FT)

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association says the region’s car sales fell 5.8% in December, with much of the brunt of the drop taken by Fiat, Peugeot Citroen and Renault. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Of course, many big public corporations also did very poorly. Several nearly destroyed their business and dragged down shareholder value with it. 24/7 Wall St. combed through the S&P 500 to find the best and worst managed companies in America for 2011.

Read: The Best Run Companies In America
Read: The Worst Run Companies In America 

To make a list of semifinalists, 24/7 Wall St. considered stock price, changes in earnings per share, major shifts in market share and changes in management, among other data. Once the initial screen was complete, we reviewed product launch success, financial results, success of new management and the performance of each company within its industry. The editors then sifted through the finalist to identify those that rewarded both customers and shareholders and those that caused these two groups the most harm.

Neither the best-run companies list nor the worst-run companies list includes a large number of corporations from any single industry. This indicates our methodology identifies well- and worst-managed companies regardless of the industry. Based on our criteria, the management of Starbucks did as good a job as the management of Oracle — two of the best-run companies. Similarly, Eastman Kodak management did as poorly as the management of American Airline parent AMR — two of the worst-run companies.

This is 24/7 Wall St.’s Best and Worst Run Companies of 2011.

We have tracked only the large buyback announcements made this month in the following companies: The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL); American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG); CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS); Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (NYSE: FIS); Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE); Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI); Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX); Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY); Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (NYSE: TMO); Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA-B); and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX).

As far as how share buybacks in general matter for stocks, you can always play the buyback leaders via the PowerShares Buyback Achievers (NYSE: PKW), and it is almost exactly in the middle of its 52-week trading range.  Those buybacks outlined below do not include the many $150 million, $100 million, and lower buybacks.  The tally all said and done here so far in just the first half of November of 2011: over $27 billion!!!

The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) is trying to tell shareholders they are in good hands because the announcement over the next 18 months is that it would repurchase up to $1 billion in common stock.  The market cap today is just over $13 billion.

How can American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) have a share buyback program?  It announced in early November that it would buy back up to $1 billion in stock.  The $43 billion in market cap is one thing, but the amount of shares still owned by Uncle Sam (or taxpayers) is huge.  Actually, maybe this supports the stock value for us all!

CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) added to its prior plan and has authorized the repurchase of up to $1.5 billion in stock.  The current market cap is $16.5 billion, so we’ll leave it up to you to decide if this buyout matters or not.

Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (NYSE: FIS) announced on November 1 that it was approving for up to $500 million in share buybacks over the next two years.  This compares to $7.4 billion in market capitalization.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) recently expanded its buyback program and it is now authorized to repurchase up to $7 billion worth of common stock.  This is a huge amount but it sounds small when you consider a $151 billion market cap.

Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) this week announced a $2.5 billion share buyback plan which is good for the next two and a half years.  This is more than 10% of the company’s stock as the market cap is $23 billion.  Institutions own 46% of Reynolds.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) recently added to its prior buyback plan with up to 20 million shares. This is more than $850 million at current prices, which compares to a market cap of $32.5 billion.

Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY) recently boosted its dividend but it also announced that it would repurchase up to 20 million shares of common stock.  This represents about $550 million today and its market cap is just over $16 billion.

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (NYSE: TMO) recently added $750 million to its prior buyback plan and its market capitalization is $18.5 billion.  The company had only $25 million remaining under a prior buyback and the new buyback is over the course of a year because it expires on November 9, 2012.

Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA-B) must want to try to take itself private.  The market cap is just under $25 billion, but the company recently announced with its positive earnings report that it is expanding its buyback to $10 billion.  While this was an expansion of a prior plan, $10 billion is a massive sum.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX) is a bit odd.  While it announced that it would spend up to $1.5 billion repurchasing securities, this was listed as a buyback of stock and/or debt.  Its market cap is $13.25 billion today.

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JON C. OGG

As finances in Italy deteriorate, concerns grow about the ability of the government to implement austerity plans. (Reuters)

Despite job additions by Macy’s (NYSE: M), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Toys ‘R’ Us, and Fedex (NYSE: FDX), holiday hiring will be down. (Reuters)

Concerns are high whether an agreement between Congress and the White House can be reached on a jobs and deficit reduction bill. (Reuters)

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) may sell more of its stake in China Construction Bank to raise money. (Reuters)

Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) may cut some Nook prices when its releases a new model. (Reuters)

BP’s (NYSE: BP) plan to sell South American assets for $7 billion will not happen. (Reuters)

Men under 25 face the worst jobs market for them in modern history. (WSJ)

EU-based banks are loaded with troubled debt taken on before the EU sovereign debt crisis. (WSJ)

Many union retirement funds are short billions of dollars. (WSJ)

Ford (NYSE: F) to offer free upgrades to its digital dashboard because of concerns about the system. (WSJ)

Airbus has solicited new customers based on the long training period needed for pilots of the Boeing (NYSE: BA) 787. (WSJ)

Investors will watch the rebuilding of Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) with special concern after the two years of trouble the company has had. (WSJ)

France to announce a new round of sharp budget reductions. (WSJ)

Germany may cut taxes for low- and middle-income families. (WSJ)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) gives key executives tens of millions of dollars in stock grants. (WSJ)

Some global capital markets investors decide to make risky investments in EU sovereign bonds. (WSJ)

Loans by U.S. banks could become harder to get and the financial prospects of the firms falter. (WSJ)

As issues in Greece begin to be resolved, the eurozone’s focus moves to Italy. (NYT)

NBC has trouble creating successful news shows while CBS (NYSE: CBS) and Disney’s (NYSE: DIS) ABC launch hits. (NYT)

More states begin to use contract workers, which cuts expenses but also the earnings of those workers. (NYT)

Disney and Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube reach a content license agreement. (NYT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Other media companies reporting earnings this morning include Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) and Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA). CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) reports earnings tomorrow, and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) reports earnings next week.

By way of contrast to Time Warner’s showing, Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) reported a quarterly loss this morning of $347 million, and forecast a loss of about $1.15 billion in is current fiscal year ending in March 2012. The company’s has seen its sales of TVs fall off the table, and now it seems that it is going to pin its hopes on smartphones. It may even try to sell its Sony/Columbia Pictures unit to raise cash.

Comcast this morning reported a 51% jump in quarterly revenue and a 4.7% rise in net profit. Revenue came in at $14.34 billion and adjusted EPS totaled $0.36. The consensus estimate called for revenue of $14.24 billion and EPS of $0.39. The revenue driver was 261,000 new high-speed internet subscribers. Comcast lost 165,000 subscribers to its cable subscription services, fewer than it lost in the same period a year ago, which the company says proves that customers are not cutting the cable in favor of internet streaming.

Since taking over NBCUniversal earlier this year, Comcast has had mixed success with the unit. The cable channels increased revenue in the quarter, but the broadcast network lost money and Universal’s movie business also lost money.

CBS goes into tomorrow’s earnings release with consensus estimates of $0.46 EPS on $3.43 billion in revenue. The revenue estimate is slightly higher than a year ago, but about $200 million lower sequentially. For the fiscal year ending in December, analysts expect CBS to post EPS of $1.86. At NBC, network TV advertising was flat, and there’s little reason to expect CBS to do much better.

At Disney, analysts expect EPS of $0.54 on revenue of $10.56 billion when the company reports earnings on November 10th. Earlier this week Disney’s ABC television group signed two licensing deals, one an extension to its existing agreement with Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), and the other a new deal with Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). Both agreements license the companies to stream certain ABC television programming.

In the pre-market this morning, Sony shares are down nearly -6%, at $18.58, inching close to a new low for its current range of $18.10-$36.97. Comcast shares are up more than 2%, at $23.50, in a 52-week range of $19.19-$27.16. Time Warner shares are up nearly 2%, at $34.51, in a 52-week range of $27.62-$38.62.

Paul Ausick

There are plenty of challenges facing the network and cable TV industry these day, not the least of which is the growth in streaming video. The well-known troubles of Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) to one side for a moment, the market for streaming is growing, while some cable operators are losing subscribers. Broadcast networks with content to license are better placed to profit, while cable operators with their own spectrum might be in the best position of all, at least in the near term.We’re looking today at 10 companies with broadcast or satellite/cable businesses (or both): CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS), Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH), DIRECTV (NASDAQ: DTV), Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA), Liberty Starz Group (NASDAQ: LSTZA), Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA), and Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR).

All data from Yahoo! Finance and current stock prices were gathered about noon today.

CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) has a median target price of $31.00 from 22 brokers. Shares are trading today at $25.66, for an implied gain of $5.34, or 21%. CBS’s forward P/E is 11.62 and the company pays a dividend yield of 1.6%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $15.99-$29.68, and at today’s price that’s about 60% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 14% below the 52-week high. CBS is scheduled to release third-quarter earnings on Thursday. The consensus EPS estimate is $0.46 on revenue of $3.43 billion. A year ago the company posted sales of about $3.3 billion and last quarter revenue totaled nearly $3.6 billion. There’s room for the share price to rise, but neither the 52-week high nor the target price are endangered in the near term.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) has a median target price of $40.00 from 24 brokers. Shares are trading today at $35.34, for an implied gain of $4.66, or 13%. Disney’s forward P/E is 12.28 and the company pays a dividend yield of 1.1%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $28.19-$44.34, and at today’s price that’s about 25% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 20% below the 52-week high. Disney is much more than a distribution channel. Its ability to create compelling content and then license it for further distribution is practically equal to a license to print money. Analysts expect EPS of $0.54 on revenue of $10.36 billion when Disney reports third-quarter earnings next week.

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) has a median target price of $30.00 from 24 brokers. Shares are trading today at $23.60, for an implied gain of $6.40, or 27%. Comcast’s forward P/E is 12.35 and the company pays a dividend yield of 1.9%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $19.19-$27.16, and at today’s price that’s about 23% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 13% below the 52-week high. Comcast owns both content and the fat pipes to distribute that content. Because distribution of streaming content is fast becoming a commodity, it’s Comcast’s NBCUniversal media business that will carry Comcast forward. The $30 target price is probably safe for a while, but the company’s 52-week high could be in the sights.

Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) has a median target price of $85.00 from 22 brokers. Shares are trading today at $62.91, for an implied gain of $22.09, or 35%. Time Warner’s forward P/E is 11.25 and the company pays a dividend yield of 3.1%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $47.89-$79.21, and at today’s price that’s about 31% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 21% below the 52-week high. In its last quarter, Time Warner lost subscribers and posted lower profits. The company believes it will make its forecast annual profit, but warned that advertising was falling. It’s easy for subscribers to drop cable subscriptions in a tight economy, and as the holidays come round, dropping cable service to have a few more bucks to spend on gifts will occur to a lot of viewers.

Cerberus and Chatham Trust will buy Innkeepers USA (Reuters)

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) will license “Gossip Girl” and other premium content from CBS (NYSE: CBS) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) (WSJ)

Hulu has been taken off the market (NYT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ) Raised to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) Maintained Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) Maintained Buy with $48 target at Argus.
Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) Maintained Outperform but cut target to $91 at Credit Suisse.
EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) Maintained Outperform but Cut target to $27 at Credit Suisse.
France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) Raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN) Cut to Sell at S&P Equity Research (late Wednesday call).
Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO) Cut to Neutral as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) Raised to Hold at Jefferies.
ProLogis (NYSE: PLD) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NASDAQ: TEVA) Started as Outperform at Leerink Swann.

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JON C. OGG