These May Be the Only People Who Want Yahoo to Thrive

The world’s biggest oil traders take price slumps, trade sanctions and natural disasters in stride. The decline of a vintage Internet company has them quaking.

Yahoo! Inc.’s Messenger has for almost 18 years been the default communication tool for the men and women who each day move billions of dollars’ worth of crude oil and petroleum products around the planet. From Singapore to Rotterdam, daily deals are pitched, contracts negotiated and global price benchmarks assessed on the chat service, with its deep-purple color scheme punctuated by Yahoo’s trademark exclamation point and dead-eyed yellow smiley emoticon.