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

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

#301

Post by username223 »

discodave wrote: post #261
fma wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have $200 million in the bank, why do you need any further C-level position? Hell, give me $20 million and I'll take that risk.

By the time you're that rich money & wealth is just a scoresheet, not a means to an end. Competitive, successful people like winning more than they like money, otherwise people like Larry Ellison wouldn't spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the Americas cup.

> By the time you're that rich money & wealth is just a scoresheet, not a means to an end.

Yo'ure no doubt right, but when a majority of society is told to accept that money is "food, shelter, and a decent existence" to most people, and "points in a senseless ego game" to a few, things have gone badly off the rails. Those differences in perspective tend to be resolved violently and badly.

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

#302

Post by baybal2 »

sperglord wrote: post #244
nikcub wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that is true. In 2012 Yahoo had $5B a year in revenue and was the second most visited property on the web. When Thompson stepped down the board were given two proposals. The first, revive Yahoo as a premium tech firm lead by someone like Mayer, or 2. admit that Yahoo is now a media co and double down on the verticals where Yahoo is winning - especially those where you can sell premium ads (Finance, Spor…

I was surprised to learn at a conference in October that America Online still exists(!), and this (media) is the route that they took. Apparently they own the Huffington Post and Engadget now.

and all blogs they own turned into turdballs

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

#303

Post by cowardlydragon »

I would like yahoo to go screw itself for one specific reason:

Microsoft had offered its war chest to buy them, and yahoo turned them down. It had a good chance of bringing down Microsoft in the long run, and yahoo would have done a solid for the world.

But they turned them down. The ONE TIME I want a goddamn company executive leadership to take the money and run, and they didn't.

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

#304

Post by jazoom »

bencollier49 wrote: post #130
interknot wrote: post #42

Well, at least they registered Altaba.com. No IP address as of now, though it looks like their mail is handled by Google Apps!

Suppose they'll be less likely to get hacked.

Haha. Thanks for the chuckle.

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

#305

Post by WalterBright »

blacksmythe wrote: post #299
WalterBright wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't it be unethical to take on a job you were certain you'd fail at? (If you disclosed that, and they hired you anyway, then there's no ethical problem.)

>> because the company is being eaten alive by its competitors What if you were the best qualified candidate? Would it be unethical then?

If you don't disclose that you could not deliver success, then yes, it would be unethical.

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

#306

Post by trhway »

prostoalex wrote: post #131
CalChris wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why'd she do it then? Got paid a lot, that's for damn sure. $219M over 4 years. http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/25/technology/marissa-mayer-pay...

Everyone loves a good turnaround story versus slow-death story. As Google's 20th employee she was already approaching the tres commas league. Remember when she was confirmed as a hire, the feeling around the Valley was less of "wow, a new CEO" and more of "how did someone like Yahoo get someone like Marissa". The previous CEOs include alumni from PayPal and AutoDesk, so getting someone as successful was a win for Yah…

> more of "how did someone like Yahoo get someone like Marissa".

Not me. My comment at the time was "Fiorina 2.0", a mediocre mid level got lucky.

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

#307

Post by dpark »

beedogs wrote: post #85

What an absolutely TERRIBLE new name. Why do they think this is a good idea?

Because it doesn't matter. It'll be a holding company for people who basically want to own Alibaba shares. From that perspective, it's a great name, because it reads a lot like "alternate alibaba".

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

#308

Post by jon-wood »

cli wrote: post #268
ryandrake wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure. For perspective, that's around 2000X more than an average tech salary in Silicon Valley. I'd be thrilled to [Not Turn Around Yahoo] for that much money. Hell, I could have done it for a fraction of the cost!

Did you add an extra 0? The average programmer salary is around $27,000 per year in Silicon Valley?

If that's really the case then Silicon Valley salaries have gone through the floor recently. That would be considered an insulting salary for a developer in London, in GBP.

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

#309

Post by tonyplee »

dpark wrote: post #280
nikcub wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that is true. In 2012 Yahoo had $5B a year in revenue and was the second most visited property on the web. When Thompson stepped down the board were given two proposals. The first, revive Yahoo as a premium tech firm lead by someone like Mayer, or 2. admit that Yahoo is now a media co and double down on the verticals where Yahoo is winning - especially those where you can sell premium ads (Finance, Spor…

The problem is that Yahoo was never a media company, either. They never had a lot of success in media, at least not past their early properties like Finance and Autos. They failed to do anything meaningful with video, or mobile, or flickr, or much of anything past their early success. Yahoo tried to be a media company for years. They called themselves "the premier media company". They had two different CEOs pulled fr…

"Jack of all trades, master of none" is probably not a good way to increase share holder value.

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

#310

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]
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