I don't think it's just about innovation. They were one of the first big companies to figure out how to make money selling ads on the Internet, though many of t

I don't think it's just about innovation. They were one of the first big companies to figure out how to make money selling ads on the Internet, though many of their best paying customers were actually failed dot-coms. It was still enough to get them through that first round okay. The main thing they've lost out on is not having something that competes with Google on ads. Especially the part where Google's entire ad buy market is automated while Yahoo's isn't. Their management made a big bet that just giving out media and other cools stuff for free to users would bring in enough eyeballs to make things profitable. That worked for awhile, but the switch to mobile and a large number of other competitors on the Internet ad front has hurt both income and market share.