Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Yahoo SEC Filing: Name change to Altaba Inc and director resignations

investor.yahoo.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 383 posts

Re: Yahoo SEC Filing: Name change to Altaba Inc and director resignations

#171

Post by jonknee »

stanleydrew wrote: post #116
idlewords wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She was very well compensated for her time sinking Yahoo. I think this kind of tone policing is unhealthy.

Upvoted since I think this discussion might be interesting. I'm wondering why people focus on financial compensation so much? Why does how much someone was paid justify more or less bashing, as the case might be? And what's unhealthy about tone policing? I'll leave aside the way you've negatively framed my attempt to steer the conversation in a more positive direction, and just say that I don't see what the purpose o…

> I'm wondering why people focus on financial compensation so much? Why does how much someone was paid justify more or less bashing, as the case might be?

To me it's because she wasn't taking a risk, she was getting paid massive amounts regardless of what she did. Why celebrate someone who enriched herself as the company imploded and had to lay off thousands of people? There are so many other people worth accolades.

Re: Yahoo SEC Filing: Name change to Altaba Inc and director resignations

#172

Post by tyingq »

stanleydrew wrote: post #22

Rather than the inevitable bashing of Marissa that will undoubtedly unfurl on this thread, I'd like to put in a little reminder that we usually celebrate taking on big projects and big risks and that we should commend her for taking on the immense challenge of steadying the Yahoo ship. Yes, she wasn't able to keep the ship from sinking. But I do think she put in a good-faith effort.

Saving it would have required big bold moves. Did she make any?

Re: Yahoo SEC Filing: Name change to Altaba Inc and director resignations

#173

Post by speaktruth »

stanleydrew wrote: post #22

Rather than the inevitable bashing of Marissa that will undoubtedly unfurl on this thread, I'd like to put in a little reminder that we usually celebrate taking on big projects and big risks and that we should commend her for taking on the immense challenge of steadying the Yahoo ship. Yes, she wasn't able to keep the ship from sinking. But I do think she put in a good-faith effort.

What exactly do you want to accomplish with this comment?

Are you really suggesting that we shouldn't analyze and criticize Marissa for failing? Why is it important to you to create a safe space for this CEO? This CEO had a very self-confident attitude but in the end got nothing right. There were no signs progress and development with her and the company. She showed no intrinsic focus and absolutely no creativity.

And what are this big risks you are talking about? "we usually celebrate taking on big projects and big risks ..."

All I know is that she got a compensation plan in 2012 for about 120 mio. dollars. If you play in this league you dont get points for "good-faith". Why gets someone who failed such a high compensation and why should it be wrong to criticize and even bash such a person?

Re: Yahoo SEC Filing: Name change to Altaba Inc and director resignations

#175

Post by ghaff »

ubercow wrote: post #61

I wonder what's going to happen to Flickr. I still haven't found a replacement place to host my pictures that I want to show off to others.

SmugMug? At one point pricing changes made it pricey for relatively casual users but current plans seem pretty reasonable.

Re: Yahoo SEC Filing: Name change to Altaba Inc and director resignations

#176

Post by brandnewlow »

akjainaj wrote: post #34
stanleydrew wrote: post #22

Rather than the inevitable bashing of Marissa that will undoubtedly unfurl on this thread, I'd like to put in a little reminder that we usually celebrate taking on big projects and big risks and that we should commend her for taking on the immense challenge of steadying the Yahoo ship. Yes, she wasn't able to keep the ship from sinking. But I do think she put in a good-faith effort.

I think there is absolutely no indication that anybody, other than Jesus Christ himself descending from the skies mounted on a Harley Davidson in flames, could have saved Yahoo. So, bashing Marissa here would be really, really pointless and sad.

Bashing her may also be naive. She may not have been hired to "save Yahoo!". She may have been hired to make a lot of money for Dan Loeb's hedge fund, and succeeded at that, if you believe the telling in this piece: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/marissa-mayer-biography-20...

Summary:

- Loeb decides he can make a bunch of money if he can invest in Yahoo!, clean out the board, and get a more compelling CEO in charge.

- Loeb buys 5% of Yahoo! (presumably at a price in the mid-teens) and starts a campaign.

- Loeb ousts then-CEO Thompson and recruits Marissa Meyer from Google to take the CEO job. She is announced in July 2012 to massive fanfare and media attention.

- Yahoo!'s stock rises to $28 or so over the next year. Seeing as how they shipped no new products of note during that time, it's fair to assume this was largely due to Meyer joining the company. In July 2013, Loeb sells off most of his holdings and is removed from the board.

Given this, it seems unfair to bash Meyer for not saving Yahoo!. She was never hired to do that. She was hired to make money for Dan Loeb and did a great job. All the handwringing about "saving Yahoo!" is a fake narrative foisted on the public by the tech press and Yahoo!'s PR people.

Once a company becomes a zombie, there's generally no saving it. If you can get enough people to believe it might happen though, you can make some money.

Also: This reading helps make sense of some of the other weirdness around Meyer's tenure. Why did Henrique De Castro get such a rich contract? Why did Meyer? Perhaps in part because some of the people negotiating those deals (Loeb and Wolf, ex president of MTV hired by Loeb to help with the Yahoo! affair) knew they'd be gone in a year and didn't care about the fallout.

Re: Yahoo SEC Filing: Name change to Altaba Inc and director resignations

#177

Post by iaw »

stanleydrew wrote: post #22

Rather than the inevitable bashing of Marissa that will undoubtedly unfurl on this thread, I'd like to put in a little reminder that we usually celebrate taking on big projects and big risks and that we should commend her for taking on the immense challenge of steadying the Yahoo ship. Yes, she wasn't able to keep the ship from sinking. But I do think she put in a good-faith effort.

I didn't see a good-faith effort, what I saw was a lot of conservative policies that tamped down innovation and then efforts to chase the market leaders.

Marissa Mayer didn't do a good job, her first acts at Yahoo alienated the loyal employees that she needed to embrace. I don't know if anyone could have saved Yahoo from sinking but she sure as shit didn't do anything to stave it off.

Re: Yahoo SEC Filing: Name change to Altaba Inc and director resignations

#179

Post by draw_down »

stanleydrew wrote: post #22

Rather than the inevitable bashing of Marissa that will undoubtedly unfurl on this thread, I'd like to put in a little reminder that we usually celebrate taking on big projects and big risks and that we should commend her for taking on the immense challenge of steadying the Yahoo ship. Yes, she wasn't able to keep the ship from sinking. But I do think she put in a good-faith effort.

I agree. But part of leadership is that people criticize your performance- fairly or otherwise. Being a leader means accepting that.

Re: Yahoo SEC Filing: Name change to Altaba Inc and director resignations

#180

Post by iaw »

jonknee wrote: post #171
stanleydrew wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upvoted since I think this discussion might be interesting. I'm wondering why people focus on financial compensation so much? Why does how much someone was paid justify more or less bashing, as the case might be? And what's unhealthy about tone policing? I'll leave aside the way you've negatively framed my attempt to steer the conversation in a more positive direction, and just say that I don't see what the purpose o…

> I'm wondering why people focus on financial compensation so much? Why does how much someone was paid justify more or less bashing, as the case might be? To me it's because she wasn't taking a risk, she was getting paid massive amounts regardless of what she did. Why celebrate someone who enriched herself as the company imploded and had to lay off thousands of people? There are so many other people worth accolades.

She never has to work a day in her life after disrupting the lives of thousands of her employees while failing to accomplish any of her objectives.

She had all risk removed when they hired her.

Post reply on HN