Speaking from experience there, Yahoo! will do better without that kind of "leadership" up top. Let's break Yahoo! up into its valuable components, sell it and shed the rest.
I'll be buying Yahoo! stock in the morning.
Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO
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Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
A Microsoft acquisition looked attractive, but I would argue that a Google acquisition would be far better for both. Google would foster a culture totally different from Yahoo's, and at the same time thrill the existing Yahoo employees - which means they would stick around. So much opportunity for both. Microsoft is a great company, but their online businesses are losing money like crazy, and I suspect that many Yaho…
What would Google gain from acquiring Yahoo? Yahoo has little search technology of its own and many services that overlap with existing Google services. I think Yahoo's properties (and users) might be a better fit with Facebook.
Yahoo has some of the most visited websites in the world, for Sports, Finance, etc...
Not sure who would gain the most from those properties.
Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO
#33I would never dream of selling a company to Yahoo.
I don't build to flip, so seeing what they did with Flickr, Delicious and dozens of other projects (internal ones, too: SimpleGeo is proof that FireEagle should have gotten a major push out of the gate) makes me feel a little bit like Joss Whedon contemplating doing another show with FOX.
Does anyone have any compelling counter-arguments, or believe things will ever get better? Is Yahoo in AOL/NAMBLA territory at this point?
Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO
#34"CFO interim CEO".. yeah, those guys usually have a vision.
Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO
#35Yahoo needs someone who can clearly articulate what Yahoo does. There is no "product" to draft behind, just a disjointed set of technologies which individually are great (as someone pointed out, YUI and Hadoop, etc), but holistically don't have any focus. Google had the same problem, but they are now shedding this.
Why not ask the employees who actually WORK on their products what the heck Yahoo's vision for the future should be? Crowdsource the company vision so you don't have to rely on someone like Steve Jobs magically appearing out of nowhere.
Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO
#36Finally. Carol may have been a decent operations manager, but Yahoo needs a product driven leader. You can't cost cut your way to new users.
Funny, isn't that a description of Tim Cook and Apple now?
Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
implying microsoft acquisition of a big competitor is a good thing.
He screwed the company's owners out of many millions of dollars. Microsoft may well have killed and gutted the fish, but the CEO's responsibility is to the shareholders.
I see what you mean. But let's say he would have sold to Microsoft and then Microsoft would have killed and gutted the fish, you'd probably be criticizing him for having no vision by selling Yahoo to MS and letting it die like that.
Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO
#38Fired over the phone? Is that common at that level?
Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO
#39I wonder if Yahoo! lacks the vision of a founder to compare with Gates, Jobs & Woz, Branson, Larry & Sergey, even Zuckerberg? It's been described as listless and without vision or a clear direction for several years now. Particularly with more macro economic trends, now is a good time for CEOs and business owners to re-engage themselves and their teams with the original vision or intent of their business, to help con…
Don't forget – Jerry Yang actually returned to Yahoo! for a period. And completely fucked the dog, screwing up a potential acquisition and being replaced by Bartz. Say what we will about Valleywag, they covered this period pretty well: BSing the troops: http://gawker.com/valleywag/tech/yahoo/jerry-yangs-fireside-... Ballmer writing a polite letter killing the acquisition prospects: http://gawker.com/386898/ "Hey guys…
To be honest, I know, and the DOJ certainly didn't help.
Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO
#40I remember using Yahoo! way back in the days of Mosaic. Yahoo! has a long history (in Internet time) and many long-time and loyal users of it's email and other entertainment and lifestyle services.
Yahoo! has to break out of the "portal" mindset of trying to be all things to all people. When portals were the all the rage in the late 90's, options were limited in the online services space -- which is clearly not the case anymore. What Yahoo! currently brings to the table is talent, experience, traffic and a loyal user base of it's core services (e.g. Mail, Messenger, Finance, Flickr, Stores, Fantasy Sports, etc.). They need to integrate these services better by focusing on one core demographic and offering a more cohesive experience.
The first step is to identify their core demographic and build around their needs. They should raise cash for acquisitions through the sale of existing properties that do not service their primary audience. The Yahoo! brand and user base is strong enough to make a comeback, they just have to look at their company from a slightly different perspective and play their best hand in the current market.