Yahoo! brand hits its toughest week.(Brief Article)

After last week's profits warning from Yahoo Louise Banbury asks how it can turn around

Yahoo! sent the dotcom gloom to new depths last week, when it became the latest company to issue an earnings warning.

Some industry watchers believe that Yahoo!, perhaps the biggest brand on the web, and a bellwether of the new economy, may have no choice but to merge with another company to survive.

It all began the morning of March 7, when officials at New York's Nasdaq stock exchange, where Yahoo! is listed, briefly suspended Yahoo!'s share trading. They knew something was up, because Yahoo! chief financial officer Susan Decker had scheduled a conference call for the afternoon.

The announcement, when …