Re:Can Marissa Mayer save Yahoo?
by IvyMike on Thursday August 01, 2013 @01:17PM
(#6141831)
I thought Yahoo was a goner for sure.
On the day Mayer took over, if you sat me down and said "Michael, discuss the most optimistic yet still possible scenario for Yahoo's future", I would have dismissed the current course as implausible.
That doesn't mean they're saved, but Mayer as a CEO has exceeded my (very low) expectations.
Re:Can Marissa Mayer save Yahoo?
by leothekim on Thursday August 01, 2013 @02:05PM
(#6142183)
Agree that part of their success is that they're setting low expectations. When Meyer said "We promise not to screw it up"[1] after dropping >$1 billion on Tumblr, I thought to myself "Way to set the bar low, Marissa."
Re:Can Marissa Mayer save Yahoo?
by fmsf on Thursday August 01, 2013 @01:26PM
(#6141915)
I recently declined a job at yahoo UK becouse their hiring process was a mega mess. It took nearly 4 months from first interview till I got a proposal, and the engineers there seemed to be demoralised a lot.
Re:Can Marissa Mayer save Yahoo?
by tsax on Thursday August 01, 2013 @01:38PM
(#6141994)
Awesome. I was just about to post this.
I almost wish to kill a few hours scraping tens of thousands of headlines with question marks to find out whether these could be answered with a negative. I suspect > 85% could be answered so.
Re:Can Marissa Mayer save Yahoo?
by mathattack on Thursday August 01, 2013 @02:45PM
(#6142483)
“Name another Internet giant that went through three years of decline and then started to grow again,”
This captures the difficulty of their situation. If she turns it around, she'll be one of the Valley's great CEOs.
"most recently, it languished under Carol Bartz and Scott Thompson as a dot-com relic known mostly for losing its top talent to competitors."
When top talent choose to join Yahoo instead of Google, Facebook and Twitter, that will be a sign that things have changed. This doesn't count acquihires.
Re:Can Marissa Mayer save Yahoo?
by antitrust on Thursday August 01, 2013 @12:00PM
(#6141208)
It seems clear that most of what needs to be done (to "save Yahoo") involves ceasing to do certain things so that core competencies can rise. That she's gearing it toward the mobile age is astute, but not necessarily out of step with what competitors have been doing for some time.
Re:Can Marissa Mayer save Yahoo?
by dr_ on Thursday August 01, 2013 @01:43PM
(#6142031)
Who knows, but I can say this. I've started using Yahoo mail regularly again, and I've started giving it out as my preferred email contact again. And, at least until ios 7 comes out, I've been using Yahoos weather app pretty regularly. I wouldn't have been doing either of these one year ago.
Re:Can Marissa Mayer save Yahoo?
by hga on Thursday August 01, 2013 @12:04PM
(#6141238)
I don't know, if you read between the lines it's got useful info, e.g. Yahoo has been historically very hostile to mobile, and they can't recruit mobile talent without "[buying] talent, spending close to $200 million to acquire at least 18 startups, in addition to blogging network Tumblr for $1.1 billion. In each instance, Yahoo has locked up engineers with two- to four-year contracts...."
Re:Can Marissa Mayer save Yahoo?
by foobarqux on Thursday August 01, 2013 @01:44PM
(#6142035)
> Mayer prefers to focus on the company’s increase in Web traffic. She won’t give numbers but says it’s enough to erase the entire decline from the previous year.
Probably the most costly acquisition of Web traffic ever.
On the day Mayer took over, if you sat me down and said "Michael, discuss the most optimistic yet still possible scenario for Yahoo's future", I would have dismissed the current course as implausible.
That doesn't mean they're saved, but Mayer as a CEO has exceeded my (very low) expectations.
[1] http://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/50902111638/tumblr-yahoo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines
^ They're crap
^ I like them
;)
This captures the difficulty of their situation. If she turns it around, she'll be one of the Valley's great CEOs.
"most recently, it languished under Carol Bartz and Scott Thompson as a dot-com relic known mostly for losing its top talent to competitors."
When top talent choose to join Yahoo instead of Google, Facebook and Twitter, that will be a sign that things have changed. This doesn't count acquihires.
People also join firms for brand image, and future career opportunities. The talent has to believe in that too.
Yeah, that sounds like a recipe for success....
I thought this particular article was pretty darn good.
Loeb's hedge fund who appointed Mayer has sold their stake and has removed its directors from the board.
SC 13D is the SEC disclosure form. There are probably sites that aggregate that type of information.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1011006/0000899140130...
Probably the most costly acquisition of Web traffic ever.