Morning Briefing - November 18, 2008

by Bryan Schott

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is stepping down. Yang's short tenure was marked by an awkward, an ultimately unsuccessful, dance with Microsoft and a failed deal with Google. Since Yang took over in June of 2007, Yahoo shares have dropped 60%.

Those who thought Wall Street could ride out the economic storm and not make significant cuts lost that bet yesterday when Citi Group anounced they were cutting 53,000 jobs, or 14% of its global workforce. Citi had planned to cut about half that number anyway, but the sheer size of yesterday's announcement caught many off guard. It will be the single biggest layoff by an American company since the early 1990's.

It's not just GM that's in need of some quick cash to stay afloat. Ford announced it will cut it's interest in Mazda from 33% to about 13%. That will give Ford about $500 million, which is about 1/4 what a 20% stake in the company was worth just a few years ago.

Here's something that is sure to give Utah Jazz fans some schadenfreude...Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been hit with charges of "insider trading." The SEC alleges Cuban dumped about 600,000 shares in search engine Mamma.com after learning the company was considering some private financing. According to the charges, Cuban avoided a %750,000 loss. If he's found guilty, he could be facing fines of nearly $3 million. On his blog, Cuban says he plans to fight the case, which he says is "gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion."