Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 300 posts

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#51

Post by coldtea »

FussyZeus wrote: post #3

Oh just give this poor old dog the old Yeller treatment already. I don't know what's more sad, the fact that Yahoo has fallen from where it once was, or that it's falling so slowly and that it's new CEO, once thought to be it's saving grace, is letting the bleeding continue for seemingly as long as she possibly can. I can't imagine the morale issues in the trenches of Yahoo, it's gotta be just horrible in there.

>Oh just give this poor old dog the old Yeller treatment already. I don't know what's more sad, the fact that Yahoo has fallen from where it once was, or that it's falling so slowly and that it's new CEO, once thought to be it's saving grace, is letting the bleeding continue for seemingly as long as she possibly can.

And why not?

In what kind of reasoning, if you could continue to make money and employee thousands of people for 10+ years of slowly declining revenue and relevance, would you refuse it?

A "hot" CEO or employee might want to jump ship ofcourse for greener pastures. But there's absolutely no sense in closing the company and leaving all the money it could make (even if declining) on the table.

If it wasn't profitable, that would be another story. But it is.

[edit] fixed typos.

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#52

Post by argonaut »

lmm wrote: post #45
AznHisoka wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's perhaps the most twisted/obtuse definition of "running at a loss". Without their search engine, there is no advertising business.

Yes there is. A lot of Google's advertising business is selling ads on other people's sites, and they use the information from their search engine to target that; they could run the ad business without it (using data from Google Analytics and elsewhere) - after all it ran as an independent business when Doubleclick owned it. My understanding is that if search and ads were separate businesses and ads paid search for s…

Where is this understanding coming from?

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#53

Post by alanning »

carrier_lost wrote: post #35
wiremine wrote: post #12

Honest question: what has been Yahoo's core business for the last 15 years?

Their latest quarterly report summary offers plenty of details: http://biz.yahoo.com/e/151105/yhoo10-q.html

Thanks for the link. Here's the description from their Overview (cleaned up a bit):

"Yahoo! Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries is a guide focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining our users. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. For advertisers, the opportunity to be a part of users' digital habits across products and platforms is a powerful tool to engage audiences and build brand loyalty. Advertisers can build their businesses through advertising to targeted audiences on our online properties and services or through a distribution network of third party entities who integrate our advertising offerings into their websites or other offerings. Our revenue is generated principally from search and display advertising."

Reading that was a bit strange to me as it doesn't fit with my image of Yahoo. From that description, it seems they think of themselves as a social network + ad platform. I'm finding it a bit hard to clarify what my image of Yahoo exactly is but its not that.

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#55

Post by FussyZeus »

mattlutze wrote: post #30
FussyZeus wrote: post #3

Oh just give this poor old dog the old Yeller treatment already. I don't know what's more sad, the fact that Yahoo has fallen from where it once was, or that it's falling so slowly and that it's new CEO, once thought to be it's saving grace, is letting the bleeding continue for seemingly as long as she possibly can. I can't imagine the morale issues in the trenches of Yahoo, it's gotta be just horrible in there.

As a sidebar, I've always kinda felt the name gets in the way. Yahoo! I feel silly saying it. I feel silly asking someone if they Yahoo!? It feels silly seeing it on stock tickers. Do I want to invest in a silly business? Work for a silly business? The answers are yes and yes in an objective world, if the company is producing interesting products that are selling. But when it comes to marketing to users, investors an…

The old ads were great, from the early 00s? Always ended with the dude screaming YaaahooooOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Memories.

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#56

Post by spinchange »

To come in as an outsider and try to save an ailing web giant nearly everyone had already written off is no easy feat. Wall St. is valuing things like Tumblr at zero and so now she has to do a 180 and unwind this company, maximally and efficiently, while pregnant with twins. Naturally we're inclined to armchair QB, but I think the hand she took over when she sat down at the table was bad. While she never went "all in" on a moonshot, that would have been a literal gamble, and she played smart. Wall Street can be inefficient. Core Yahoo is worth more than nothing.

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#57

Post by FussyZeus »

coldtea wrote: post #51
FussyZeus wrote: post #3

Oh just give this poor old dog the old Yeller treatment already. I don't know what's more sad, the fact that Yahoo has fallen from where it once was, or that it's falling so slowly and that it's new CEO, once thought to be it's saving grace, is letting the bleeding continue for seemingly as long as she possibly can. I can't imagine the morale issues in the trenches of Yahoo, it's gotta be just horrible in there.

> Oh just give this poor old dog the old Yeller treatment already. I don't know what's more sad, the fact that Yahoo has fallen from where it once was, or that it's falling so slowly and that it's new CEO, once thought to be it's saving grace, is letting the bleeding continue for seemingly as long as she possibly can. And why not? In what kind of reasoning, if you could continue to make money and employee thousands o…

I guess it makes sense to get all the jewelry and dresses off the Titanic while the bow is still above water, personally I'd sell the business while it's still worth something and move on to bigger and better things.

Anyway, I'm thinking more from the perspective of the grunt workers than the big execs who will walk away rich no matter what. If I was them I'd be looking for the lifeboats and getting the hell out.

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#60

Post by pmlnr »

voltagex_ wrote: post #24

Again I ask, where should I take ~30GB of photos that I have on Flickr? Yes, I have other backups but I need offsite storage. Guess I'll have to budget for it now. Backblaze B2 isn't quite ready yet.

Serious answer: digitalocean gives you a 40GB VPS for 20$/m and you can spin up an Owncloud instance in minutes.
Post reply on HN