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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

#261

Post by discodave »

fma wrote: post #215
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a pretty major risk that her name would be tarred as "that loser who wrecked Yahoo". It might affect her ability to get any further C-level positions. That risk might not be something that a normal human being would want compensation to take on.

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.

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

#262

Post by praneshp »

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 do not think she put in a good-faith effort. I am an ex-Yahoo, and found the hiring of several mid-level Googlers and buying a startup run by an ex-APM investigation-worthy.

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

#263

Post by aianus »

pgodzin wrote: post #250
yarou wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think that a public CEO's incentives should be aligned with their shareholders? That's the only way you can have real change, instead of the moral hazard situation we have now.

Sure, in the form of stock, incentive bonuses, etc. Not the entire salary

Why not the entire salary? If you're already worth $100m, you're working for fun and prestige not because you need cash to pay your rent.

All the famous rich ceos have tiny salaries and make their money on capital gains. It's more tax efficient to boot!

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

#264

Post by thaumaturgy »

idlewords wrote: post #249
thaumaturgy wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(reasonable) tone policing helps prevent a bunch of armchair quarterbacks with modestly successful programming backgrounds from assuming they have any idea what happens at the executive level of a company like Yahoo.

Armchair quarterbacking on every topic is the bread and butter of this site. Why should Yahoo be exempt?

It's only the bread and butter of this site on threads that bring out the tabloid readers.

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

#265

Post by nadim »

mullingitover wrote: post #142
mortenjorck wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an enthusiast photographer, she did one great thing in my book: She oversaw the attempted revitalization of Flickr. The old Flickr product and UI had stagnated for the better part of a decade, and under her administration, Yahoo rebooted a lot of the core experience. Some parts were rebooted more successfully than others, but on the balance, it was for the better.

She did the bare minimum that needed to be done to keep flickr alive, I'm not sure it's worthy of praise. Flickr is currently comatose or dead, given that they haven't updated their mobile app in over a year, let alone anything else on the site. Yahoo could've used flickr to pre-empt YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram all in one, but Yahoo instead neglected it and ran it into the ground. I feel bad for the engineering…

The ads on flickr wrecked it 4 me

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

#266

Post by Turing_Machine »

dexterdog wrote: post #160
redial wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs was paid in stocks. A lot.

If she had been willing to be paid that heavily in stock she would be looked at very differently.

I agree. Skin in the game.

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

#267

Post by praneshp »

harryh wrote: post #95
protomyth wrote: post #35

Was Marissa Mayer expected to stay with the investment company, move over to Verizon with the Yahoo property, or leave entirely?

She was expected to leave entirely. This is not a surprise.

Source? She has said repeatedly she will be with the unit that is going to Verizon, and I didn't see anything different yet.

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

#268

Post by cli »

ryandrake wrote: post #128
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...

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?

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

#269

Post by BipolarElsa »

cloakandswagger wrote: post #220
vidarh wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She also joins a line of failed CEOs at Yahoo . Trying to tie this to her gender would require a lot of evidence to be remotly meaningful. Yahoo has been failing for a decade and a half, largely punctuated by a couple of lucky investments (Google and Alibaba). I also see little evidence of rabid defenses of her. I see some that don't believe she deserves to be crucified for failing to save a company that's been faili…

Here's the thing: If Yahoo was in such dire shape that it couldn't be saved (that seems to be the consensus), it should have been scrapped and sold for parts to maximize shareholder value. Instead Marissa squandered hundreds of millions of dollars on random acquisitions and Katie Couric. In my mind there is nothing noble or defensible about coming into a dire situation, throwing a Hail Mary and then shrugging when it…

You're right: this does have to do with gender. It's the glass cliff. Example: have a failing corporation? Jump off the ship and have a lady run the helm until it sinks! And guess what? Blame her for not turning it around.

This is exactly why people seem to "deny, deny, deny" because in reality they know the glass cliff to be a real phenomenon. And a sad one, too.

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

#270

Post by nadim »

mtgx wrote: post #259
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 don't blame Marissa for "not saving Yahoo". I blame her for allowing the NSA to (illegally) get root access to Yahoo's servers so they can spy on everyone whenever they feel like it with no oversight, for doing it behind the security team's backs (not that it matters much in the grand scheme of things, but also shows what kind of person she is), and (perhaps related) allowing 1 billion of Yahoo accounts to be hacke…

I really wish this wasn't true. The Internet is effectively dead to me.
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