I just don't think that was even possible at this stage of the game for Yahoo what with their shareholders calling for blood, their weird relationship with Alibaba such that Yahoo's corporate structure is essentially their product, management issues, lack of vision, etc.
So once something gets to that point, I'm not sure it really is possible to turn it around. So the next best thing is reallocating that capital to things that can move forward in a more productive manner.
But again, I absolutely 100% agree with "stakeholders over shareholders." Just don't think that is realistic with this particular scenario.
Oh that's cool. To be clear, I wasn't taking it as anything: just an opportunity to explain what my reasoning was. Especially here, I figured there would be people on both sides I mentioned. Hence presenting it that way and being clear about my own bias.
"I just don't think that was even possible at this stage of the game for Yahoo what with their shareholders calling for blood, their weird relationship with Alibaba such that Yahoo's corporate structure is essentially their product, management issues, lack of vision, etc."
Oh yeah. I totally agree. It appeared to be beyond salvage. It's why I thought the results she got were impressive as I didn't expect it to even go that far. I might be wrong about whether it was a good move to make the attempt. It could've been foolish given how bad the situation was. I'm open to that.
I was just glad she gave a damn enough to try something rather than soak up money and gut it. It's all I see with so many tech and other companies that had a lot of untapped potential. I wasn't sure what was left for Yahoo but they had plenty of tech, smart people, & ad connections. So, I like that an effort was made which actually should've been made years ago by other management.
Meanwhile, the process of getting rid of it begins. And I still have to dig back through Yahoo email in case I missed anything important. Before they delete it...
>She tried with an impressive effort
That's one way to view it. I'd say it was a pretty expensive, unimpressive effort.
>rather they had listen to finance people
Uh, you realize that it's also "finance people" that have been standing behind Amazons rise as well, right? Just because you read a couple of articles on HN about activists wanting to see profits, in no way does that represent all "finance people". Amazon has a lot of shareholders. Like it or not, "finance people" aren't some homogeneous group of self interested, greedy trolls.
Look up Publix or Costco for an example of stakeholder model working in low margin industries. Probably could work in high margin tech.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2013/07/24/the-wal-...
"That's one way to view it. I'd say it was a pretty expensive, unimpressive effort."
Feel free to offer a different set of recommendations that would've turned it around..
"Just because you read a couple of articles on HN about activists wanting to see profits"
Just discovered HN recently. Try most articles in the media and finance people they interviewed. People were either impressed with their consumer value or talking about how they were a failed business in the making. Rarely saw an exception when the name came up.
Could've been some media bias that made it appear one way while real opinion of investors was different.
My philosophy is more stakeholders than shareholders. Hers apparently was, too. It says at least make an attempt to innovate your way out of a bad situation to get a win for everyone. She tried that with an impressive effort. Ship long sailed, though, so she failed as I expected. Now, with efforts attempted, it's morally right in my model to abandon Yahoo and re-invest that capital. Workers and customers should definitely jump ship, too, if they can.
While we're at it, consider Amazon. Every piece I read for years was how they should do the same do to no or low profit. Yet, they pushed forward with growth and one innovation after another. One set of those became Amazon Web Services. A mini-revolutiom in IT followed. Would you rather they had just listen to finance people and quit long before that? What would cloud market look like?