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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

#321

Post by lorenzorhoades »

tomhoward wrote: post #294
Cyph0n wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mac has increased in market share yes, but it's still not even close to a threat. MS Office is, like Windows, still the king of office productivity application suites. Yes, there are competitors, but they are not a threat to MS as far as I know. I'm not entirely sure that mobile will be replacing desktop in the near future. People have been shouting "fire!" for years now when it comes to tablets vs. desktop. Regardle…

> Regardless, the original comment was talking specifically about desktop. Yes but that's the point. Microsoft may still be the most dominant player on the desktop, but they're no longer the most important company in tech, because the desktop is no longer the only important platform. Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple are all now as important or more important than Microsoft, because they all run platforms that are a…

I think the OP was talking specifically about search, not tech in general. It's rather obvious that unless companies constantly reinvent themselves that the new tech will replace old methods. His question was directed toward the possibility of someone coming in and taking over search as it is today. Which i'm curious of other opinion on this question as well, because frankly I think unless a radical innovation happens in the field, that modern day search is going to be forever relegated to google.

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

#323

Post by danieltillett »

WalterBright wrote: post #287
akjainaj wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is absolutely no indication that anybody, other than Jesus Christ himself descending from the skies mounted on a Harley Davidson in flames, could have saved Yahoo. So, bashing Marissa here would be really, really pointless and sad.

> bashing Marissa here would be really, really pointless and sad. She took on the job, promised results, and demanded (and got) enormous compensation. Part and parcel of that is accepting responsibility for failure. Keep in mind that if she had turned Yahoo around, she would have gotten the credit.

Walter exactly right. Not even Marissa feels sorry for Marissa given the payout she has received. A couple of hundred million dollars heals a lot of hurt feeelings.

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

#324

Post by zigzigzag »

ACow_Adonis wrote: post #239
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 can't speak for the rest of HN, but part of the "bashing" of Mayer is not just a personal attack on her, but a critique of our entire culture and economic system. At the end of the day, she'll receive multiple millions of dollars for doing and achieving nothing. Not a bad job of you can get it, but the phenomenon itself seems eminentl, judiciously and justifiably open to criticism to me. She's just another caricatu…

This. None of us know Mayer, have met her, really, none of us give a monkeys about her. I'm sure she's a lovely and pleasant person.

Criticism of her in this context are entirely criticisms of the events surrounding her time at Yahoo, for which there are multiple other examples. The habit corporate boards have of rewarding failure is a problem, but it's not clear how to solve it.

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

#326

Post by ec109685 »

cheald wrote: post #20
LeoPanthera wrote: post #15

The headline was changed but the new one reveals nothing. For those who don't want to dig through the filing: Meyer has resigned from the board and Yahoo is renaming to "Altaba". Edit: It changed again. That's better.

The document says that Mayer is resigning from the Board of Directors, not necessarily as CEO. > Marissa Mayer ... has indicated that he or she intends to resign from the Board effective upon the Closing,

Will resign. She hasn't resigned yet.

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

#327

Post by Shivetya »

akjainaj wrote: post #34
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 think there is absolutely no indication that anybody, other than Jesus Christ himself descending from the skies mounted on a Harley Davidson in flames, could have saved Yahoo. So, bashing Marissa here would be really, really pointless and sad.

She was paid to succeed and paid excessively on any level. Why should we not hold stars in the tech industry to higher standards. Why should we not vilify them like any other CEO presiding over a failing or failed company which sheds thousands if not tens of thousands of employees? She is the quintessential example of the CEO type many dislike. Overpaid, doesn't deliver, and walks off with money in the bank.

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

#328

Post by syngrog66 »

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.

There are challenges and then there are challenges.

When the challenge is... "Try to increase/stabilize Yahoo profits and keep relevant/hip, and, no matter what, we'll give you X millions of dollars." I don't think that's a challenge, let alone an immense challenge.

Start with nothing. No code, no customers, no brand, no employees, no customers, no investors, and very little cash in the bank for runway, and try to build that up to Yahoo's level -- that's a challenge. That's a big challenge.

Being able to parachute into a high status, high privledge, highly paid (no matter what) role, where you can just kind of twiddle the bits and get to spin every more you make as the obviously smart thing to do -- that's easy. Even if you "fail" you still win. Very different from situations where when you fail you... starve, get evicted, etc.

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

#329

Post by ProblemFactory »

jinglbox wrote: post #154
prostoalex wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If he had failed he would have wasted years and got nothing in return. Steve Jobs' personal wealth is mainly from Pixar (acquired by Disney) and less from Apple, especially after SEC shut down the goldmine of backdated options http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2007/01/snow...

Yes, and he was already rich from previous money he made in Apple's early days. Just like Marissa Mayer was already rich from Google stock. Neither needed the money at all. Jobs knew that and didn't take any. Mayer for some reason took as much as possible.

> Neither needed the money at all. Jobs knew that and didn't take any. Mayer for some reason took as much as possible.

Apple was a company that Jobs founded and got fired from. Coming back to "save" it would have been a very personal battle, and a way to prove people that fired him wrong.

Why on earth would anyone want to do the same at Yahoo for free (and tie their personal reputation to the success or failure), even if they didn't need the money?

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

#330

Post by zimpenfish »

saalweachter wrote: post #296
sremani wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a convincing argument. The odds are certainly against Yahoo, and the promise of MM was it will turn Yahoo into a Engineering powerhouse, which never happened. On top of that the Yahoo hack handling was not leadership. She tried, well but her Participation Trophy was worth $300 million including Golden Parachute. That is a grave sign!

You're looking at this backwards. Yahoo was dying. They were dying no matter who was at the head. And whoever was holding the reins when Yahoo went down would get to be known as the person who killed Yahoo with the appropriate reputation hit. They might never work again, almost certainly never be the CEO of any significant company. Meanwhile the board needs a big name at the helm. Someone to goose the stock price at…

> Yahoo was dying.

Yahoo was dying when I was there in 2005-6 - the internal political structure, in-fighting, and general disdain from the US for anything not made there was terrifying.

But with billions of dollars propping it up, it takes a long time for a corpse to actually fall over.

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