OREANDA-NEWS. July 19, 2016. For a company whose very name is a shout of celebration, Yahoo has slouched toward oblivion with barely a whimper.

The 21-year-old company, once a dominant force in Silicon Valley, is now close to sale, with final bids due Monday and observers expecting that the firm will be broken up.

Experts say Yahoo committed fatal errors in the fast-paced, hypercompetitive tech world -- it didn't innovate fast enough, clung to a stale business model and failed to blow its own horn.

"Part of what makes Silicon Valley an exciting place to be and to study is the amazing ability of many of the companies there to engage in effective self-promotion. Yahoo, possibly because of its performance problems and possibly because of its leadership changes, has really fallen down on that mark," said Jo-Ellen Pozner, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business professor

"There are ways to keep customers and investors and the public engaged in your story even if you're not delivering. A little bit of hype really never hurt anybody, especially when your stock price is tanking," she said.

Instead, Yahoo has been steamrolled by Silicon Valley competitors Google and Facebook, which have grown to dominate digital advertising. The two are raking in 64 percent of online ad revenue in the U.S., according to Pivotal Research. Both firms are known for continuously rolling out new products and services and developing an impassioned user base. Meanwhile, Yahoo is expected to capture just 1.5 percent of the global digital ad market this year, down from 2.1 percent in 2015, according to digital advertising consultancy eMarketer.

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Yahoo's travails are often laid at the door of CEO Marissa Mayer, who arrived from Google in 2012 to become Yahoo's fourth CEO in four years. Mayer quickly went on a buying spree, spending more than \\$2 billion on dozens of companies. In 2013, Yahoo hired news anchor Katie Couric for more than \\$6 million a year and raised her compensation to \\$10 million last year. This year, Yahoo shuttered seven digital magazines and laid off more than 300 California workers as it seeks to cut 15 percent of its workforce by year's end.

When Mayer landed at Yahoo, the firm's market capitalization -- the combined value of all shares not owned by the corporation -- stood at \\$25.9 billion and had climbed to \\$42.1 billion in 2014. The value fell precipitously last year to \\$34.9 billion.

And in April, Yahoo announced its first-quarter revenue had fallen 18 percent to \\$859 million, the biggest quarterly drop since Mayer took over. It also suffered a \\$99 million quarterly loss and its market cap now stands at \\$35.8 billion.

The company reports second-quarter earnings Monday, the same day final offers are expected. Bidders, according to reports based mostly on anonymous sources, include Verizon, AT&T, Quicken Loans co-founder Dan Gilbert backed by Warren Buffett, and private equity companies. Sale-price estimates hover around \\$6 billion.

In its defense, Yahoo consistently points to its 1 billion monthly users and says its News and Finance sites are No. 1 in viewership in their categories, according to comScore ratings.

But to many observers, expansive metrics don't tell the real story.

"Big numbers don't necessarily mean success," said Michael Malone, a journalist and longtime Silicon Valley watcher. "You can have a lot of users, a huge installed base, a huge market cap, but you're dying of old age, you're rotting from the inside. When was the last time anyone talked about Yahoo as interesting or compelling or innovative?"

Companies perceived as interesting and innovative, such as Facebook and Google, have kept their product-focus sharp, while Yahoo has done the opposite, said Forrester Research analyst Shar VanBoskirk. The firm has spun out its offerings from search to a wide variety of products, from news to mail to video programming to hosting blogs. While Google has also wheeled out an array of products, its dominance in search gives consumers a strong touchpoint, VanBoskirk said.

"The thing it (Google) did so well that Yahoo missed on is it stood for a clear utility and clear use," VanBoskirk said. "The Yahoo brand doesn't stand for anything anymore, which is their whole problem. They said, 'We are going to be your all-purpose portal.' "

Malone sees Yahoo's business model as a throwback to the '80s and '90s. In contrast to Google's ability to launch users wherever they want to go in the web, Yahoo is a "closed system," Malone said. "You're supposed to enter into this complete world where you get all the experiences you supposedly want," he said. "They want to keep you in the castle."

To Pozner, Yahoo has essentially lost its Silicon Valley mojo, and with it, the interest of an otherwise tech-obsessed public and its ability to lure tech talent. "The company has been mining its existing customer base and not necessarily providing new value to attract new customers," Pozner said. "Once the organization stops being known for innovation, then it stops attracting the people who are excited by innovation."

However, Yahoo still generates affection, even among people who seldom interact with it, and that loyalty may be an attractive asset in the company's sale, VanBoskirk said.

"It's a funny thing. Even if people don't use Yahoo a lot or know what the brand stands for, they like it. They root for it. They feel kind of warm and fuzzy to the brand, even after it's reached its point of uselessness."

Contact Ethan Baron at 408-920-5011 or follow him at Twitter.com/ethanbaron.