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Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

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Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#191

Post by potatolicious »

polyfractal wrote: post #65
programminggeek wrote: post #48

So she was head of Search at Google at one point right? I wonder what it would be like to become CEO of a company who has outsourced their whole search and advertising stack to Bing. Will Yahoo! start caring about search or ads again?

I wouldn't bother. They are so far behind both Bing and Google that trying to play catch up in the search game is simply a lost cause. They have significant traffic and brand loyalty for certain services (finance, sports, etc). They need to focus on that, not chase a game they lost ages ago (search).

This. IMO Yahoo's days as a technology company have long since ended (if they ever really existed in the first place). They have never been a heavily algorithms-based company like Google is.

IMO Yahoo's best bet is to reinvent themselves as a world-class product company, and rent the relevant tech stack from someone who can actually do a good job of it.

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#194

Post by elsewhen »

mtgx wrote: post #45

When does Yahoo's contract with Microsoft for the search engine expire? 2014? I think she will quickly switch to Google search engine after that. And there goes half of Bing's market share.

It's a 10-year contract that expires in 2019: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2052024/Its-Official-Mi...

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#195

Post by elsewhen »

richardv wrote: post #12

Can someone explain how she is able to do this? Set aside the boldness of the move, but if anyone ever should be put on some kind of "garden leave" or some kind of non-compete it would be a person moving from a prominent position in Google to become CEO of Yahoo? Anyway, that aside. One thing that I hope that comes from this, is bringing some of the same Google-quality-developer-friendly-ethos to Yahoo. Dispite consu…

Yahoo's deal with Bing was reported to expire in 2019: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2052024/Its-Official-Mi...

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#196

Post by dmpk2k »

feronull wrote: post #187
shawnee_ wrote: post #51

Doug Crockford gave a great keynote address at the HTML5 conf this year titled "What would Crockford do?" It was basically not about HTML5 and all about what he'd do if he were Yahoo CEO. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cukFl7gpjE (Crockford takes the stage ~5:09 )

he would fork a Node.js and made Ynode :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HzclYKz4yQ&feature=playe... ~22:40

Why?

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#198

Post by larrys »

uptown wrote: post #14
jbyers wrote: post #2

Wow. I am speechless. There is probably no better person on earth to light a user- and product-focused fire under Yahoo. But the risk, the risk for her is just stunning. Huge props to her for making the leap from what must be a very comfortable Google and for the board for finding a stunning candidate to lead the revival of Yahoo. (Edit: my definition of risk is lost time and missed opportunity. She's not going to su…

"the risk for her is just stunning" What risk? She's already achieved complete financial security from here time at Google. At Yahoo! she'll be taking the reins of a company that still attracts a massive userbase but is aching for someone with a fresh viewpoint on how to transform the company. Nothing buy potential IMO.

"fresh viewpoint on how to transform the company"

And possibly who to poach from google.

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#199

Post by ChuckMcM »

barkingcat wrote: post #159
ChuckMcM wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it not surprising that she left Google to be a CEO somewhere, it was just surprising that she picked Yahoo. Another one of those VP -> CEO jumps that was interesting to watch was Ed Zander (Sun Micro -> Motorola). What I was expecting was that she would leave and start some sort cross between 'solve a world issue' with 'easy accessibility' kinds of UI. At Google her strength was having a clear idea of how to…

I'd say the "premier digital media company" at the moment is Netflix. They have their problems and troubles, but they have enough brand recognition and enough good content (albeit produced by other people) to quality for that moniker.

Agreed. I would think you could make an argument for NetFlix (streaming/rentals), Apple (iTunes + players), or Amazon (streaming/rental/sales/player (book)) as being 'digital media' companies.

It may be that I think 'education/entertainment' more than I think 'discovery' when I think digital media. If Yahoo claimed to be the digital media discovery company that might be the starting point for a bigger vision.

Re: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

#200

Post by boyter »

petercooper wrote: post #95
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #30

This might be a stupid question, but are there any amazing turnaround stories in the world of large tech companies? If not, is that due to the relative youth of the sector, or something fundamental? I can think of a ton of companies that have faltered, but really none that have made a dramatic turnaround.

Bit borderline on being a 'tech' company by modern standards (though historically it's about as tech as it gets), General Electric under Jack Welch. He pulled off a Jobsian effort in the 80s. GE went from $27bn revenues to $130bn under his watch and a market cap of $14bn up to $410bn.

As I recall most of that was due to the US economy turning around and picking up defense contracts. I think it would be impossible to not make money in that situation.
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