Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief • Hacker News Board

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

#361

Post by koide » Wed, Jul 18, 2012, 5:30 AM UTC

dillona wrote: post #243

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…

That's always been my problem with Yahoo. They are a company filled with brilliant engineers (who give us things like Hadoop), yet they only want to be a media company.

And there's no problem with that, if they took their engineers and had them create new media distribution platforms or new efficient encodings or any other of the huge amount of highly technical things that can improve media distribution and consumption.

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

#362

Post by pwaring » Wed, Jul 18, 2012, 8:25 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #329

pwaring wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if non-competes are enforceable, sometimes it will make more sense for a company to let an employee go straightaway anyway, rather than having them hang around twiddling their thumbs with no motivation.

True, Where California's statutes affect innovation is in the case where you're trying to raise money. In a state that enforces non-compete agreements you have a harder time if your new venture competes with the place you just left. That is because there is a risk that if you're successful you will be sued by your original employer and shut down. This is not true in California so it is nominally easier to raise funds…

How enforceable are they in other states? I know in the UK there have been a few test cases which seem to have resulted in the interpretation that you can only enforce one if it would otherwise be detrimental to the ex-employer (e.g. starting a new business or taking your contacts with you), otherwise people would find it difficult to move jobs within an industry because you'd almost always be going to a company who could be classed as a competitor.

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

#363

Post by mjwalshe » Wed, Jul 18, 2012, 11:39 AM UTC

mjwalshe wrote: post #306

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, Matt Cutts is incapable of ever not being nice.

True but you know Matt is anothger posibly trophy hire at soem stage he is acting way above his pay grade if my company asked me to represnt them to congress etc I would say "cool" but I want a board seat first :-)

Realy you think that head hunting Matt Cutts is not many internet companies wet dream?

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

#364

Post by nostrademons » Wed, Jul 18, 2012, 7:50 PM UTC

tomkarlo wrote: post #353

nostrademons wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but now we've circled back to the original point, which is that when you do give notice, it makes no sense for the company to insist that you leave immediately and escort you out, as you were in control of when you gave notice. If you wanted to do any damage, you would've just done it and then gave notice.

So what, you just let them hang around the office for while? Maybe poach a few employees? It might not prevent any damage that's already occurred, but there's no reason to allow more damage.

Work out an end-date with them that will allow for a comfortable transition & knowledge transfer. Perhaps that's "immediately" if someone else can take over their job, or if they're not interested in staying and helping you. Perhaps it's "2 weeks from now." But generally assume good faith, because if they wanted to screw you, they would've already done so.

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

#365

Post by rhizome » Wed, Jul 18, 2012, 9:27 PM UTC

SatvikBeri wrote: post #325

drumdance wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean, since leaving Yahoo? In that case you're probably right. Carol Bartz did great things for Autodesk.

Yeah, since leaving. My point is that Yahoo is a career destroyer for its CEOs-none of them have held a significant position afterwards. Bartz even had a great track record before (and during!) her tenure at Yahoo, but that doesn't seem to have helped.

They haven't really had that many CEOs, and Mayer is young enough to weather anything that might happen. I can't imagine she isn't going into this without an upper hand, It's not like she was looking to jump ship (maybe she was) and Yahoo was the only company who would hire her.

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

#366

Post by sabat » Sat, Jul 21, 2012, 3:56 AM UTC

anmol wrote: post #249

sabat wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has been underwhelmed by Ms. Mayer since her early days at Google, I think this is just another desperate attempt to save the ailing Yahoo. It will fail, and she'll be out in less than a year.

curious to learn why you say this?

She's a showboat, IMHO. This is based on personal observation and insider info. She's quick to yell about how great she is, but you don't see a lot of unbiased people talking about her contributions to technology or to Google. She has her own publicist; not from Google, mind you, this is the Marissa Mayer publicist. She apparently enjoyed keeping people lined up waiting for an appointment with her for hours. To summarize, there are a lot of signs of weak character, no signs of great leadership, and no signs of greatness at all. Yahoo's board wanted her, obviously, for the name Google. They will be disappointed.