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Yahoo lays off 1,700 and is up for sale

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

#41

Post by billyhoffman »

st3v3r wrote: post #39
billyhoffman wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If its not growing, for from many investors, yes, that is a failure. I have $1. I can do many things with it. Why would I give my $1 to someone in exchange for a piece of their business if that business is not growing when I could instead give that $1 to someone who is growing? I want my $1 to become worth more. Yes, yes yes, I know companies that pay dividends or profit sharing, etc. However what's the return on tho…

"If its not growing, for from many investors, yes, that is a failure." Then those investors should go invest in something else, and quit trying to push a bunch of shortsighted crap on a company.

I get what you are saying, and even agree to an extent. The fact that Dell had to take itself private to be able to save itself is a good recent example of how the super short term thinking of stock market investors can hurt a company.

That said, if a company doesn't want to be exposed to that sort of investor, then it shouldn't have done IPO and become a publicly traded company.

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

#42

Post by mythz »

st3v3r wrote: post #36
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…

Maximizing shareholder value is NOT a company's primary purpose. Stop spreading this lie. And even if it were, there are many ways to do that. And many of them do not involve short-sightedness with respect to the business. If you're unhappy with how the business is being run, then sell your shares and get out. Quit bitching that they're not sacrificing the long term to give you an additional point.

No that's not how it works, if shareholders are unhappy (the ones that are still left) will just elect a new CEO and replace board members who they have more confidence in being able to meet their objectives. Yahoo as a company wants to attract investment, they'll never say for any Shareholders who want it to make money should get out - they're the ones who work for Shareholders not the other way round. Telling Shareholders and potential investors "we're not here to increase revenue/profits" so GTFO - will get investors to do exactly that, further decreasing the value of the company.

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

#44

Post by cylinder »

dragonbonheur wrote: post #19

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 Ama…

"Give me money* or I'll buy your whole company and fire you."

* We just call it a dividend, or share buyback, or sell me your real estate in bulk so I can sell each piece individually and take the spread.

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

#45

Post by forgetsusername »

dragonbonheur wrote: post #19

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 Ama…

>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.

They take advantage of the rights afforded to them as owners of the company to push for change, whether you agree with their particular view or not. That's how corporate governance is supposed to work.

Though, not surprising that people on this board might prefer the "don't give shareholders any rights" model of Facebook or Google.

Why do you put "investors" in scare quotes?

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

#48

Post by forgetsusername »

st3v3r wrote: post #36
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…

Maximizing shareholder value is NOT a company's primary purpose. Stop spreading this lie. And even if it were, there are many ways to do that. And many of them do not involve short-sightedness with respect to the business. If you're unhappy with how the business is being run, then sell your shares and get out. Quit bitching that they're not sacrificing the long term to give you an additional point.

>Maximizing shareholder value is NOT a company's primary purpose. Stop spreading this lie.

The lie is when people say a corporation's purpose is to maximize profit, which it isn't.

The purpose of the corporation is to maximize the value to ownership, be that monetary or some other measure.

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

#49

Post by Riod »

cylinder wrote: post #44
dragonbonheur wrote: post #19

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 Ama…

"Give me money* or I'll buy your whole company and fire you." * We just call it a dividend, or share buyback, or sell me your real estate in bulk so I can sell each piece individually and take the spread.

Investors want management to be efficient capital allocators. Not surprising.

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

#50

Post by vidoc »

cylinder wrote: post #46
justaman wrote: post #43

Yahoo was only ever a power play by Google when they sent M.M. there.

GOOG was happy to get rid of MM, she's a hack.

I have no idea whether she is or isn't, I think it's irrelevant here. The key thing is that expecting for a one person's turnaround of a 20y+/10k+ organization is a little bit like waiting for Xenu's ride to Syrius, it's ludicrous at best. It's funny how some people always refer to how Steve Jobs did it at Apple, without acknowledging that something like this is extremely rare. In other words, they are always hoping/betting on an exceptional rather than likely outcome. Interesting ..
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