"Worked at Yahoo! 1997-~1999" seems like a very strong positive signal on a resume (maybe less so now because there have been other similarly great periods in other companies, but certainly in the early to mid 2000s). Not a "hire without any consideration", but I'd certainly weigh it highly. I'm not sure what the end date on that should be -- clearly by 2007-2008, but I don't remember the best people going there in mid-2000s either as new hires; there were still existing good people, but mainly they entered through M&A.