Yahoo lays off 1,700 and is up for sale • Hacker News Board

Re: Yahoo lays off 1,700 and is up for sale

#11

Post by gtrubetskoy » Wed, Feb 03, 2016, 5:42 PM UTC

michaelmcdonald wrote: post #3

Seems like a sensationalist headline designed to generate page-views. The company has not announced it's "for sale"; instead people are reading between the lines and coming to that as a conclusion based on corporate speak.

It's been "for sale" since the IPO, any public company is "for sale", so it's not like they can announce "we are for sale", it would make no sense.

But I think what the people are reading between the lines is "if you decide to buy the majority share we will cooperate".

Re: Yahoo lays off 1,700 and is up for sale

#12

Post by babuskov » Wed, Feb 03, 2016, 5:42 PM UTC

Shofo wrote: post #8

eatonphil wrote: post #7

Yahoo is "focusing on its most successful products — including its search engine". I don't understand this. Isn't their search engine just Bing?

Does anyone actually use their search engine? I always found it terrible the rare time I have used it (if some dingus has it set to homepage). I know for me the only thing that makes me stumble across Yahoo, is if I use their answer site. Only other reason, I'd imagine, is if you used their mail. Beyond that though there must be no way of driving traffic to Yahoo search. Seems impossible to try upend Google's grasp,…

It's the default for Firefox on some devices.

I wonder what this Yahoo situation means for Firefox in the long run.

Re: Yahoo lays off 1,700 and is up for sale

#13

Post by gerbilly » Wed, Feb 03, 2016, 5:46 PM UTC

I see this as propaganda to push the concept that Yahoo has negative value, which, I'm guessing would be beneficial for some group of shareholders to promote this view.

Personally I don't give a crap what those shareholders want.

There is more to a corporation that just shareholder value, and I don't particularly relish thousands of people losing their jobs so some people can make a quick buck.

Re: Yahoo lays off 1,700 and is up for sale

#14

Post by binarybits » Wed, Feb 03, 2016, 5:47 PM UTC

michaelmcdonald wrote: post #3

Seems like a sensationalist headline designed to generate page-views. The company has not announced it's "for sale"; instead people are reading between the lines and coming to that as a conclusion based on corporate speak.

Given the context and the way corporate boards generally communicate, I'd say an offer to "engage on qualified strategic proposals" is a pretty clear signal that they're interested in acquisition offers.

Re: Yahoo lays off 1,700 and is up for sale

#15

Post by mythz » Wed, Feb 03, 2016, 6:06 PM UTC

gerbilly wrote: post #13

I see this as propaganda to push the concept that Yahoo has negative value, which, I'm guessing would be beneficial for some group of shareholders to promote this view. Personally I don't give a crap what those shareholders want. There is more to a corporation that just shareholder value, and I don't particularly relish thousands of people losing their jobs so some people can make a quick buck.

> I see this as propaganda to push the concept that Yahoo has negative value

How is it propaganda?

YHOO has a current Market Cap of 27.7B with assets including a 25B stake in Alibaba, 8B Stake in Yahoo Japan and ~4B cash. If it wasn't for tax implications of selling their investments, Yahoo's core business clearly holds a negative value. Accounting for tax implications puts it around 0-2B.

> There is more to a corporation that just shareholder value

Shareholders are who collectively owns a Corporation of which maximizing Share Holder value is its primary purpose and what the board gets elected to do.

Re: Yahoo lays off 1,700 and is up for sale

#16

Post by kaonashi » Wed, Feb 03, 2016, 6:10 PM UTC

mythz wrote: post #15

gerbilly wrote: post #13

I see this as propaganda to push the concept that Yahoo has negative value, which, I'm guessing would be beneficial for some group of shareholders to promote this view. Personally I don't give a crap what those shareholders want. There is more to a corporation that just shareholder value, and I don't particularly relish thousands of people losing their jobs so some people can make a quick buck.

> I see this as propaganda to push the concept that Yahoo has negative value How is it propaganda? YHOO has a current Market Cap of 27.7B with assets including a 25B stake in Alibaba, 8B Stake in Yahoo Japan and ~4B cash. If it wasn't for tax implications of selling their investments, Yahoo's core business clearly holds a negative value. Accounting for tax implications puts it around 0-2B. > There is more to a corpor…

> Share Holder value is its primary purpose

No, it isn't. Corporations are given a public charter which declares its purpose. Increasing share-holder value is a nice side-effect at most.

Re: Yahoo lays off 1,700 and is up for sale

#17

Post by henrikschroder » Wed, Feb 03, 2016, 6:11 PM UTC

gtrubetskoy wrote: post #11

michaelmcdonald wrote: post #3

Seems like a sensationalist headline designed to generate page-views. The company has not announced it's "for sale"; instead people are reading between the lines and coming to that as a conclusion based on corporate speak.

It's been "for sale" since the IPO, any public company is "for sale", so it's not like they can announce "we are for sale", it would make no sense. But I think what the people are reading between the lines is "if you decide to buy the majority share we will cooperate".

Noone's gonna take over Yahoo by buying shares right now, since the price of those shares is just a proxy for Alibaba.

If Yahoo gets rid of the stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, then YHOO would properly reflect the value of core Yahoo, and someone with a few billions lying around could gobble it up.

Re: Yahoo lays off 1,700 and is up for sale

#18

Post by henrikschroder » Wed, Feb 03, 2016, 6:17 PM UTC

mythz wrote: post #15

gerbilly wrote: post #13

I see this as propaganda to push the concept that Yahoo has negative value, which, I'm guessing would be beneficial for some group of shareholders to promote this view. Personally I don't give a crap what those shareholders want. There is more to a corporation that just shareholder value, and I don't particularly relish thousands of people losing their jobs so some people can make a quick buck.

> I see this as propaganda to push the concept that Yahoo has negative value How is it propaganda? YHOO has a current Market Cap of 27.7B with assets including a 25B stake in Alibaba, 8B Stake in Yahoo Japan and ~4B cash. If it wasn't for tax implications of selling their investments, Yahoo's core business clearly holds a negative value. Accounting for tax implications puts it around 0-2B. > There is more to a corpor…

Core Yahoo has a negative value even if you add the sum of the parts post-tax.

$27.9bn (market cap) - $17.5bn (Alibaba) - $5.9bn (Y! Japan) - $5bn (net cash) = -$0.5bn (core Yahoo)

Re: Yahoo lays off 1,700 and is up for sale

#19

Post by dragonbonheur » Wed, Feb 03, 2016, 6:19 PM UTC

My thoughts:

1. Activist investment firms use Yakuza tactics. They buy a small share and the company bends over backwards so the 'investors" get an extra percentage point instead of focusing on long term strategies.

2. If Yahoo had expanded on their Pipes and Konfabulator products and capitalized on people's uproar after iGoogle was shut down they could have been great competitors to Google's App Engine, Azure or Amazon Web services. Instead they focused on making the investors an extra percentage point by throwing the baby (great products) out with the bathwater (smart engineers that worked hard to deliver great products).

3. Investors and venture capitalists really don't know diddly squat (to put it mildly) about technology these days...

Re: Yahoo lays off 1,700 and is up for sale

#20

Post by mythz » Wed, Feb 03, 2016, 6:20 PM UTC

kaonashi wrote: post #16

mythz wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I see this as propaganda to push the concept that Yahoo has negative value How is it propaganda? YHOO has a current Market Cap of 27.7B with assets including a 25B stake in Alibaba, 8B Stake in Yahoo Japan and ~4B cash. If it wasn't for tax implications of selling their investments, Yahoo's core business clearly holds a negative value. Accounting for tax implications puts it around 0-2B. > There is more to a corpor…

> Share Holder value is its primary purpose No, it isn't. Corporations are given a public charter which declares its purpose. Increasing share-holder value is a nice side-effect at most.

> Increasing share-holder value is a nice side-effect at most.

Rubbish, the board works for its shareholders who wants ROI on their investment. Who do you think is forcing their expenses / 15% workforce cut? and putting pressure on Marissa to waste her time/focus on re-structuring Yahoo to maximize their Alibaba investment? Shareholders are the primary benefactors.