User metrics may not look so great. I have no idea what Yahoo's are but over the next few years most of those mail users are going to be accessing through the phone or checking their webmail a handful of times a year until they forget they have it. They could keep habitual users for decades but that won't be worth billions of dollars.

I used the phrase "management assisted suicide" recently, which basically means figuring out how to maximize return to shareholders given a future that guarantees death.