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Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

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Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#2
I wonder if Yammer could issue some sort of legal covenant not to sue that would be binding even if they sold the company or the patent changed hands some other way? It looks like Yammer's CEO filed a patent as recently as last August:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=D-r_AQAAEBAJ&printsec=f...

Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#3
While his stance is perhaps extreme, I think it forms part of a larger rejection of Yahoo by the tech community. Sadly, that's going to hurt everyone- Yahoo has some phenomenal tech going on, but most of it generates no revenue. So, we stop using it, Yahoo just fires the developers and continues on it's "content portal" path. Sad.

Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#4
This goes a bit far. I am sure there are fine folks at Yahoo who have achieved seniority that they need to support their families. They may object to how the company does business, but can't just walk away job. Is the hiring situation in the Valley really so intense that anyone could find new work in 60 days?

Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#5
post #4

This goes a bit far. I am sure there are fine folks at Yahoo who have achieved seniority that they need to support their families. They may object to how the company does business, but can't just walk away job. Is the hiring situation in the Valley really so intense that anyone could find new work in 60 days?

Any talented engineer, yes.

So either you're soulless and refuse to leave, or you're incompetent and you're scared to leave. Either way, not hiring them seems fair to me.

Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#7
I really agree with his sentiments, but sometimes even if someone wants to quit in the next 60 days, they can't.

Example 1: Yahoo buys out your company, but it is more of a talent acquisition rather than a real tech/market grab, and the terms of the deal are marked accordingly.

Example 2: Someone takes a job at Yahoo as a sales exec, but differs all their compensation in favor of stock options that expire at a very specific date.

But yeah, generally I like the direction this is going.

Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#8
post #2

I wonder if Yammer could issue some sort of legal covenant not to sue that would be binding even if they sold the company or the patent changed hands some other way? It looks like Yammer's CEO filed a patent as recently as last August: http://www.google.com/patents?id=D-r_AQAAEBAJ&printsec=f...

A system and method for collaborative short messaging and discussion are described. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method for collaborative short messaging and discussion, comprises grouping users into client networks based on existing shared attributes. System resources are partitioned for messaging across client networks. Users in a client network are allowed to view or respond only to messages within the client network.

I know it's just a summary, but this sounds pretty much exactly like the early days of Facebook when user's were confined to their college "network".

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