Yahoo remains stuck in the deal cycle, putting off what looks like an inevitable sale for another year.

Still, a year gives its chief executive, Marissa Mayer, another chance to increase a price tag on the once-great Internet company.

And there is still much to save. Yahoo has roughly one billion users. It has 81 million users of its mail service in the United States alone. This type of reach would have investors salivating were Yahoo a privileged member of the unicorns, those rare start-ups valued privately at $1 billion or more, particularly because Yahoo actually has revenue of nearly $5 billion a year.

But alas, Yahoo’s core business has been struggling. Yahoo has yet to find a core purpose other than being an Internet destination. Ms. Mayer has adopted multiple strategies, which ReCode called “convoluted,” to try to turn the company into a media content business.