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Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

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Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#51

Post by hkmurakami »

vinceguidry wrote: post #27
jkot wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the question is not if CEO is good, but if CEO is worth her/his salary.

Hmm, I would think salary would be one of the smaller considerations when choosing a CEO at that level. It's generally going to be a drop in the budget compared to annual revenue. A negotiation point for sure, but more of a side show to other concerns.

Maybe if the company were profitable and minting tens of billions of dollars in revenue a year.

But we're talking about $YHOO, which for years has had negative core enterprise value. In such a situation it's not really a drop in a bucket.

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#52

Post by hkmurakami »

backtoyoujim wrote: post #43
w1ntermute wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mayer will be walking away with a $158M golden parachute[0], and will undoubtedly have another nice executive position lined up in no time. It's amazing how much respect she's garnered in the tech community. From all the public info on her, she doesn't seem to have much product vision - rather, she's just a manager who's good at making data-driven decisions (the infamous "41 shades of blue"[1]) to incrementally optim…

My guess is that she will run for office, next.

Isn't one Carly Fiorina enough for this planet?

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#53

Post by hkmurakami »

kzhahou wrote: post #41
notacoward wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, all the "wealth creators" at the top will do fine. It's only the people who did the work and made the stuff who will be laid off. Their fault for not cultivating the right connections.

I'm surprised by the support you're getting, because the HN hivemind fully supports it when founders exit with 50-10000x what rank and file gets. I wonder if HN doesn't see a problem with founders because they all hope to be a billionaire founder themselves one day, but they don't personally relate to hired or big-company CEOs.

> I'm surprised by the support you're getting, because the HN hivemind fully supports it when founders exit with 50-10000x what rank and file gets.

The HN Hivemind that I've witnessed as of the last 18 months or so is decidedly supportive of founders giving up much much more equity to employees, owing to ease of fundraising and low capital startup costs, combining to derisk the once very personally risky endeavor of starting a company.

In that sense the hivemind currently loosely follows the words of Sam Altman who is the present overmind of YC, so it is rather apt.

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#54

Post by namelezz »

jkot wrote: post #24
andrewvc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree and disagree with your point. It's incredibly hard to determine how much good a new CEO has done, and how much is inertia. I think that's a strong argument against the incredibly high CEO pay in contemporary companies, it dramatically underestimates the importance of the work of the rank and file. That being said, if you ARE going to judge her by contemporary CEO standards, the question is, would anyone else…

I think the question is not if CEO is good, but if CEO is worth her/his salary.

I wonder the same thing. Why do CEOs get paid too much?

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#55

Post by w1ntermute »

andrewvc wrote: post #21
w1ntermute wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mayer will be walking away with a $158M golden parachute[0], and will undoubtedly have another nice executive position lined up in no time. It's amazing how much respect she's garnered in the tech community. From all the public info on her, she doesn't seem to have much product vision - rather, she's just a manager who's good at making data-driven decisions (the infamous "41 shades of blue"[1]) to incrementally optim…

I agree and disagree with your point. It's incredibly hard to determine how much good a new CEO has done, and how much is inertia. I think that's a strong argument against the incredibly high CEO pay in contemporary companies, it dramatically underestimates the importance of the work of the rank and file. That being said, if you ARE going to judge her by contemporary CEO standards, the question is, would anyone else…

> That being said, if you ARE going to judge her by contemporary CEO standards, the question is, would anyone else have done better?

The first mistake the Yahoo board made was to decide that product innovation would save them. In reality, they should've brought in an ex-consultant or ex-banker who could chop off pieces of the business and sell them to the highest bidder (essentially, what's going to happen now).

The second mistake they made was that they decided the right person to execute on a product strategy was Marissa Mayer, when in reality that isn't her strong suit.

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#56

Post by heurist »

namelezz wrote: post #54
jkot wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the question is not if CEO is good, but if CEO is worth her/his salary.

I wonder the same thing. Why do CEOs get paid too much?

It was explained to me this way: in the US executive boards are unevenly weighted toward CO interests. In countries where wage experts and workers are more likely to sit on boards the ratio isn't absurd because boards are less likely to vote for higher executive wages (Japan and Europe have reasonable CEO wages).

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#57

Post by [deleted] »

vincentbarr wrote: post #47
Alupis wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many counter examples to your anecdote. Larry Ellison comes to mind, but there are others (in fact, most of our most successful people come from very broken backgrounds). It's what you do with that drive/anger/passion/frustration/motivation/defiance that counts. It takes a lot of risk, and guts to strike out and create jobs - and more often than not it doesn't work out... but that's all part of the game. It…

Another person that is a counter-example and outlier: Franklin Story Musgrave. A modern-day polymath, he was a NASA astronaut, Disney Imagineer, and physician among other things. He holds six academic degrees. He, too, had an extremely troubled upbringing.[1] In his own words, "I came from an extraordinarily dysfunctional family, full of abuse and alcoholism. And eventually everyone within the family had committed su…

[deleted]

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#58

Post by voltagex_ »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #32
voltagex_ wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps Yahoo should have been split into smaller companies sooner. With better management, Flickr could have been Instagram.

I've been preparing to try to make an offer for Flickr in the event it goes up for sale (separate from the rest of the web business), organizing it as a benefit corp to be a long term business not to be put up for sale. It shouldn't be an Instagram. Its not a social network. Its a photo site that helps you organize/keep your photos, as well as share them (there's a difference). Just bidding my time, ear to the ground…

Seriously? That's amazing.

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#59

Post by pkaye »

namelezz wrote: post #54
jkot wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the question is not if CEO is good, but if CEO is worth her/his salary.

I wonder the same thing. Why do CEOs get paid too much?

The corporate boards members tend to be CEOs of other companies so they have a tendency to give each other raises because it is in their best interest.

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#60

Post by bruceb »

ausjke wrote: post #29

Been a yahoo mail premium member for so many years (along with its calendar) it's something I care daily. From about 2 years ago the new mail became a hit or miss randomly, overall a much worse experience than what I used to have, and I am unhappy about that. To me since Mayer came to power, yahoo email became less reliable, a big negative.

I have accounts on the 3 main providers Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail. Which gives me the most trouble? Yahoo Mail.

When Mayer became CEO she told employees to start using Yahoo Mail. I wonder how many are actually doing so. I would think if they were actually using it the product would now have less glitches.

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