Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO • Hacker News Board

Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO

#71

Post by dpark » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 3:42 AM UTC

omouse wrote: post #35

ethank wrote: post #4

Yahoo 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.

Crowdsourced vision seems like a PR-approved term for design by committee. I don't see that being an improvement.

Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO

#72

Post by 5teev » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 3:50 AM UTC

dpark wrote: post #69

xyahoo wrote: post #53

An ex-Yahoo here, using a throwaway account. Yahoo's biggest problem is the creamy middle layer of managers. They are usually lifers (as in, been at Yahoo for a decade), or fresh MBAs with a Stanford degree who think that just because they sat through Management-101, they know how products should be designed. This middle layer is like a Turkish harem. They're busy backstabbing each other, politicking and fucking thin…

> The list of Yahoo's problems are long; and C-level people are not high on that list. "Vision" is also not a problem for Yahoo, if they'd just let the engineers just do their fucking jobs! I've got to disagree with this. No one inside or outside of Yahoo seems to be able to concisely state what Yahoo does. There are dozens of properties and various initiatives, but no real statement of purpose. There's too much conf…

> I think this is a distinct C-level problem. And if managers aren't being held accountable, that a C-level problem, too.

The C-levels are content with directors who "manage up" instead of looking past them to see what's really happening on the ground.

Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO

#73

Post by dolphenstein » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 3:55 AM UTC

voidfiles wrote: post #18

harryh wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Identifying talent is not a substitute for actual vision. Buzz does an excellent job of making that point here: http://log.scifihifi.com/post/6891792369/i-would-like-to-ann...

I don't know about that. Aol bought techcrunch and let them go hog wild, that ended up okay.

Ermm.. I'm assuming that comment is the beef jerky of humour: Very dry! In that case, haha! If not, then I suggest you check out the latest developments with AOL/TC.

Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO

#74

Post by hristov » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 3:56 AM UTC

mkr-hn wrote: post #63

hristov wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FCC would never let Google acquire Yahoo.

Are you sure you don't mean FTC?

You are right. The FCC does also approve some mergers, but those are mostly for telecoms. I think Google-Yahoo would fall under FTC jurisdiction (as well as the department of justice).

Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO

#75

Post by derwildemomo » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 3:59 AM UTC

hga wrote: post #54

derwildemomo wrote: post #34

"CFO interim CEO".. yeah, those guys usually have a vision.

Well, at least a CFO has a good chance of keeping the lights on for a few months while the board finds a new CEO.

"Keeping the lights on" doesn't sound too nice, although it's likely exactly what he's going to do..

Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO

#76

Post by kenjackson » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 4:01 AM UTC

5teev wrote: post #72

dpark wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The list of Yahoo's problems are long; and C-level people are not high on that list. "Vision" is also not a problem for Yahoo, if they'd just let the engineers just do their fucking jobs! I've got to disagree with this. No one inside or outside of Yahoo seems to be able to concisely state what Yahoo does. There are dozens of properties and various initiatives, but no real statement of purpose. There's too much conf…

> I think this is a distinct C-level problem. And if managers aren't being held accountable, that a C-level problem, too. The C-levels are content with directors who "manage up" instead of looking past them to see what's really happening on the ground.

The C-levels just need to look at stock performance and profit to see there's a problem. There is nothing that a director level person should be able to say to a C-level to make them feel comfortable.

Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO

#77

Post by tdurden » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 4:02 AM UTC

jarek wrote: post #65

mhd wrote: post #38

Fired over the phone ? Is that common at that level?

Supposedly the CEO and the chairman were on opposite U.S. coasts. Must have been pretty urgent though...

Agreed. There is more to the story we don't know yet.

Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO

#78

Post by kavehgolabi » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 4:05 AM UTC

Im surprised it took so long to fire Carol. As I saw Yahoo selling off all of its cool properties that were distracting to its core, I wondered what exactly their core was. It seems like yahoo was eager to become a bunch of links and licensed content...someone must have relied too much on an excel sheet to figure out how yahoo could become a valuable company. Though Yahoo lost many valuable properties like yahoo dating while others like yahoo maps failed to innovate, I look at what Yahoo did with the news on its front page as indicative of the company philosophy. They put sensational news on the front page begging for people to click the links. Many of the headlines are deceptive as the articles themselves are a let down. Its almost as if the yahoo content team was trying to trick users to get a few more pennies out of banner ads and lose clientele. Many times I have read comments of users making fun of the writers. Im not sure what yahoo's plan is but if I was the bored I would donate 25% of the company equity to Mark Zuckerberg and another 26% to the Page and Brin and send a box of chocolates and a plea for help. :) I wish Yahoo the best but its going to take a lot to change their culture.

Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO

#79

Post by kavehgolabi » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 4:05 AM UTC

Im surprised it took so long to fire Carol. As I saw Yahoo selling off all of its cool properties that were distracting to its core, I wondered what exactly their core was. It seems like yahoo was eager to become a bunch of links and licensed content...someone must have relied too much on an excel sheet to figure out how yahoo could become a valuable company. Though Yahoo lost many valuable properties like yahoo dating while others like yahoo maps failed to innovate, I look at what Yahoo did with the news on its front page as indicative of the company philosophy. They put sensational news on the front page begging for people to click the links. Many of the headlines are deceptive as the articles themselves are a let down. Its almost as if the yahoo content team waas trying to trick users to get a few more pennies out of banner ads and lose clientele. Many times I have read comments of users making fun of the writers. Im not sure what yahoo's plan is but if I was the bored I would donate 25% of the company equity to Mark Zuckerberg and another 26% to the Page and Brin and send a box of chocolates and a plea for help. :) I wish Yahoo the best but its going to take a lot to change their culture.

Re: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Interim CEO

#80

Post by kamaal » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 4:07 AM UTC

xyahoo wrote: post #53

An ex-Yahoo here, using a throwaway account. Yahoo's biggest problem is the creamy middle layer of managers. They are usually lifers (as in, been at Yahoo for a decade), or fresh MBAs with a Stanford degree who think that just because they sat through Management-101, they know how products should be designed. This middle layer is like a Turkish harem. They're busy backstabbing each other, politicking and fucking thin…

I am from Bangalore, And I seriously don't understand this Bangalore and Beijing hate.

Why do Americans assume all Chinese and Indians are fools? Aren't you people shooting yourself in the foot by assuming your competition is weak? Outsourcing works for a lot more factors than mere money. But money is a major factor.

Here in India, we have usual set of good and bad engineers like everywhere. There a lot of very good talented and hardworking folks here, sure they don't come cheap. But they come cheaper than what a similar guy in the US would cost. I have myself seen a lot of quality work getting delivered at almost 1/10th the cost it would have taken in the US.

The US taught us ideals of capitalism, didn't you guys want the world to follow your way of life. Now when we actually do, you guys frown.. withdraw turn your back on the same principles you have taught us for nearly half a century now.

You have nothing to fear from the bad engineers here, trust me they are loosing out very quickly. What you must fear is good hardworking folks coming at cheap prices. That will be a big problem, because when some one sees quality coming for cheap they will go for it.

Also, Indian is a huge buyer of military equipment from the US. We spend billions buying stuff from you. But we never complain that those jobs are being outsourced to America. In fact we love America for the help they offer us.

We live in a globalized world, this is how its going to be in the future.