Polyvore is far from a "fashion startup". It has a very substantial user base and their whole proposal allows for very natural (and kinda cool) monetization strategies. Also, we don't know how much Yahoo paid for it, it could've been a real bargain; apparently around 60M, kind of cheap if you consider they've been pulling profit from years now.
You want examples of real companies that seem to be adrift? Try looking at Twitter. Or Google (although they have some real good products that keep the ship floating).
I think that the urge to diversify their money, coupled with, "well, we have a lot of money" is causing Google to invest in many things that eventually turn to dead-ends. That makes Google seem a little adrift, from my perspective, but nothing that would put their business at risk.
*Although what they gave me specifically was "Geo Restriction - Sorry! The content provider has not given us the rights to play this video in your location." It's the thought that counts I guess
Part of the reason they're still around is because people like you still use them for email.
Do you honestly expect the same quality of journalism from Yahoo as the new york times etc.?
They've shutdown any interesting projects like pipes, maps, search or any other area of innovation. Anything that's still around is just rotting on the outskirts of internet. When was the last time anyone heard of YUI? The Yahoo! email experience is quite terrible and buggy with frequent service outages. They're purchasing these random startups and generally show lack of any direction. It just seems like their execs get in the room together and go "What the fuck are we gonna do today, boys? Let's buy a fashion startup! Do we need it? No, but who gives a shit. Our users sure don't." And I genuinely think that most users don't. They're just stuck on Yahoo! because they don't know how to change their default homepage.
I don't know... I'm just glad they haven't killed Flickr yet and I have a place to follow some great photographers.