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What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

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Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#251

Post by stinkytaco »

scholia wrote: post #219
stinkytaco wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yahoo is a publicly traded company. Selling Yahoo went very well for the shareholders and the first rule for any publicly traded company is to maximize shareholder value. I think it's very clear that the goal when she was hired was to sell the company and get the shareholder's some payout. Considering where the company was when she came in, I'd say she did an admirable job at this. You might say that's not success, b…

> Yahoo is a publicly traded company. Selling Yahoo went very well for the shareholders and the first rule for any publicly traded company is to maximize shareholder value. No, it went badly. If she'd been able to increase sales, and if she'd launched one or more successful apps, Yahoo would have been more valuable. In fact, they might even have sold Yahoo for more before she spent loads of money buying lots of compa…

The stock price on July 1, 2012 was 15.84. Today it's 38.30. So over the last 4 years she's more than doubled the stock price. And her compensation is tied to that stock price, which to me points to a "sell me" strategy by the Yahoo board. Add to that the fact that revenue hasn't even close to doubled in that time (though net income has been fairly healthy due to some cost cutting), it seems to that the market has been anticipating this acquisition. I don't think anyone has been buying Yahoo stock expecting a turnaround. Considering the trajectory of Yahoo since 2004 or so, I'd say that's as good an outcome as shareholders could expect.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#252

Post by 1024core »

jelenaw wrote: post #188
1024core wrote: post #37

Heh, I remember Jelena from discussion on devel-random. I would like to correct (mildly) a couple of anecdotes in her article, because I was there and closer. > A friend relayed this story: The Sunnyvale campus had a building with redundant turnstiles, which required a badge scan seconds after employees had scanned their badges to open the main doors. People complained about it when the building was remodeled years b…

Hayyyyyyyyyyy. Just found this & created a realname account to say hello... I don't know who you are from the 1024core username but if you were a d-r'er I certainly trust your corrections! I'll place a note in the article.

I picked a random username to stay anonymous. :-)

Like you, I also enjoyed the burst in energy when MM landed. I just wish she had not trusted the middle management so much; but these people had entrenched themselves over many, many years like barnacles, and it's not easy to get rid of them.

Good luck, wherever you are!

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#253

Post by 1024core »

freyir wrote: post #121
1024core wrote: post #37

Heh, I remember Jelena from discussion on devel-random. I would like to correct (mildly) a couple of anecdotes in her article, because I was there and closer. > A friend relayed this story: The Sunnyvale campus had a building with redundant turnstiles, which required a badge scan seconds after employees had scanned their badges to open the main doors. People complained about it when the building was remodeled years b…

I'm not sure what you're "correcting" in the original post. The only difference I see is that the author said Marissa removed the turnstiles after reading an email complaint, and you say she removed the turnstiles after looking at them.

I meant no offense by issuing the correction. I heard it from MM's mouth that she wanted to get rid of these barriers to entering Yahoo. My point, which is minor, is that she evaluated the situation herself and made a decision to get rid of the barriers, rather than responding to someone's complaint.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#254

Post by 1024core »

freyir wrote: post #152
smhost wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The framing is different. In one frame she appears to care about the QoL of her employees, in the other she doesn't necessary care about that so much as she cares about efficiency and her personal comfort. http://i.imgur.com/LRGZRTO.jpg

It's an interpretation based on speculation, not a correction. She might have looked at the turnstile and thought, "This is probably annoying to the other employees, so it has to go." We don't know, and 1024core doesn't know. Or maybe the OP was correct, and an email complaint really did contribute to the decision. Without further evidence, or unless 1024core is actually Marissa Meyer, we simply don't know.

Actually, I heard it from her directly that she was appalled at the barriers, and wanted them to go. Now, whether it was in a TGIF or in person, I don't recall.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#255

Post by 1024core »

freyir wrote: post #241
smhost wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're not "correcting" someone's interpretation simply by stating a different interpretation But that's how people use the word, that's what politics is. There are no objective truths to social narrative, and facts aren't the only things that have the property of correctness. Perspectives have correctness, as in moral perspectives etc. It's not an objective scale, but people don't have to conduct their lives scien…

You've now brought value judgement and morality into the discussion, and neither apply here. The blogger said Meyer acted on an email complaint about the turnstiles. The commenter said that's incorrect, that Meyer decided to have them removed on her own accord. There's no value judgement. There's no appeal to moral authority. It's not politics. Core1024 is claiming to be objectively correct about Meyer's internal mot…

To answer your question: I heard it from her directly. Now, I don't remember if it was in a small setting, or it was in the weekly TGIF. But I do recall her saying that she wanted these barriers gone.

But it's been 4 years...

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#256

Post by outworlder »

collyw wrote: post #130
outworlder wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also: she used to use pine(1) to read her emails. That increased her stature in my eyes, and those of quite a few other engineers. Ok, now that is amazing. That speaks more about her culture and background than a hundred random actions.

FFS. Judging people based on their email client?

Yes.

Mind you, I couldn't care less if she used Outlook over Apple Mail. Doesn't matter.

However, her use of _Pine_ indicates many things:

* Non-negligible tech expertise. She is comfortable with a terminal and confortable with an old (albeit powerful) email client WHICH DOES NOT DO HTML MAIL.

* Background: could be anything, but Pine usage is correlated with engineering and university backgrounds.

I could go on. The point is: she is no normal clueless CEO having secretaries printing out emails. And that's depressingly rare these days, even in SV.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#257

Post by bbcbasic »

lintiness wrote: post #249
bbcbasic wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could use this same argument for any CEO. Pick 3 things then say $X m for a b and c that's a pretty sweet deal. Sign me up.

another non-reader. i picked out the main points the writer specified.

I read it. My point is you can make the same class of argument - pick one or two trivial achievements and a fuckup for almost any CEO or indeed professional and make it sound like their job is easy.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#258

Post by stinkytaco »

ars wrote: post #229
stinkytaco wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used pine until 2004. Then I moved on from where I was and was forced into the world of webmail since there wasn't much else for me then. Inertia is strong in my world, I wonder if I could go back?

Of course you can go back. I still use pine, it's called alpine now, but works basically the same, and is just as fast as it always was.

It was more a rhetorical question for myself. My (and I think many's) usage of email has changed dramatically in the intervening decade. I get less of it, and what I do get I appreciate having on the go. I don't think I use that much HTML email, so that's not a huge deal, but it would require a major readjustment to how I communicate to make it worth it.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#259

Post by jessaustin »

ebbv wrote: post #145
sokoloff wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Executives have [employment] options. If you believe you need a talented executive to have a chance at turning around your company and your company is in dire straits, you may very well have to offer a golden parachute package to have any hope of engaging the services of the talented exec you seek, particularly when that's the norm at that level. Failing to offer such terms amounts to forfeiting any chance to hire th…

Yeah, yeah this same excuse is always used to justify insane executive pays but it's baloney. It's a self perpetuating cycle, "Oh WE Have to pay more because companies X, Y and Z are offering $N million!" Executive pay has skyrocketed in relation to worker pay over the last 30 years and it's not for any good reason like executives are so much more important or talented. It's because the executive pay is decided by bo…

The only way it's going to get fixed is regulation...

Well yes, but maybe not directly. A quick way for corporate executives to be paid less would be if suddenly corporations became really terrible investments. A quick way for that to happen would be for society to stop bending every law and regulation to benefit giant corporations over normal-sized private firms. Can we envision a scenario by which that could happen? Maybe!

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#260

Post by rhizome »

Lagged2Death wrote: post #227
dragonwriter wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm no biz-geek, I probably can't name a dozen CEOs. But for years, MM's name was called put in every critical mainstream headline about Yahoo, of which there were many. I do not believe that's an accident. I do not believe a man would have been treated the same way. IME, male CEOs of formerly-high-flying-but-now-struggling companies are treated the same way that MM has been.

>IME, male CEOs of formerly-high-flying-but-now-struggling companies are treated the same way that MM has been. Look at the headlines in the ongoing VW scandal. "Volkswagen Chairman Agrees to Bonus Cut" "VW Executives to Accept ‘Significant’ Bonus Cuts to Quell Unrest" These people stand accused of criminal acts, hugely damaging to the business, and they don't even get named in the headlines.

Nor are their bonuses completely held back. Like what do these people have to do to simply lose their bonus?
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