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Yahoo Shakes Things Up

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the they-aren't-the-only-ones dept.

PreacherTom writes "Growing strife inside Yahoo! has erupted into a sweeping management and organizational shakeup. CEO Terry Semel announced yesterday that the company will be reordered into three groups: one to focus on advertisers and publishers, another to focus on Yahoo!'s base of over 500 million users, and a third on technology and development. While Semel denies layoffs are in the future, there will be replacements in the upper echelon for the world's most popular website. The changes, the most extensive at Yahoo in more than five years, cap months of speculation about how it would respond to slowing sales growth, a slumping stock price, and a steady stream of executive departures in the past year."

7 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Yahoo is in trouble by filenavigator · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think Yahoo has been coasting for years. If my website logs are a reflection of their popularity they are in big trouble. Google beats them at a rate of 100 to 1. On top of that their version of 'adwords' is the worst I have seen (From an ad buyer's perspective). It takes days for them to approve the ad (Google takes minutes) Then when they do approve it they change the wording - usually done by a non native English speaker! I have had my software adverts changed to include the word warez. WAREZ! They need to clean house or they will need to fire more until they do.

    Steve Wiseman
    http://www.windows-admin-tools.com

    1. Re:Yahoo is in trouble by eln · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You're right that Yahoo is in trouble, but this looks like a panic move that won't really change much. They don't know what to do, they only know something drastic has to be done. So, they throw out the executives they don't like, and shuffle the others around. As each executive takes over their new role, they will have massive layoffs in order to "streamline" the business, but they still won't really know what that business is.

      Yahoo has spent too much time accumulating services that are not "best of breed" by any means, but are simply reactions to the offerings of others. They don't even really know what kind of company they want to be, or even what business they're in (other than "the web"), and until they figure that out, they're going to continue to flail madly while they spiral down the drain.

    2. Re:Yahoo is in trouble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I clicked all around your site, and I couldn't find the warez. No cracked Vista, no Photoshop ISOs, nothing! I'm severely disappointed, and I'm suing you for false advertising.

  2. In related news... by denebian+devil · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In related news, Yahoo also makes sweeping changes to their site design, leading to buggy site behavior, slower load times, and general unrest among Yahoo's populace.

  3. Yahoo Spread Itself Thin by organgtool · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem is that they try to offer too many services and can't dedicate enough resources to keep those features growing. Therefore, other companies who focus on one only service that competes with Yahoo can do a better job of catering to their users. I have used several of Yahoo's services for a few years and I have watched competing services expand to provide more features than Yahoo. It's not that Yahoo's services are bad - their competitors are simply growing faster since they only focus on one service.

    Oddly enough, I have found Yahoo's search to be more accurate than Google for certain topics. Google has always been great when doing narrow searches and it used to be pretty good at wide searches too, but lately I have been finding that I need to go through several pages to find what I am looking for on a wide Google search. I got fed up with this, so I tried Yahoo search and I was pleasantly surprised. Yahoo seems to consistently provide the results I look for within the first few entries. I'm not saying that Yahoo search is better than Google, but it seems like Google doesn't appear to be the magic bullet that it used to be.

  4. Three envelopes by rlp · · Score: 4, Funny

    A new CEO is starting work. He walks into his new office, and the old CEO that he's replacing is packing up his stuff. The former CEO wishes his successor well and hands him three numbered envelopes which contain the solutions to any serious management problems.

    After about six months, the stock slumps. The new CEO opens the first envelope. It says "Blame your predecessor". He holds a press conference and confidence in the company is restored.

    Another six months pass and another crisis arises. He opens the second envelope. It says "Reorganize the company". He does so and the crisis passes.

    After a year, things are terrible. The stock price is in a downward spiral. The CEO opens the third envelope. It says "Go get three envelopes ...".

    --
    [Insert pithy quote here]
  5. Re:The appeal of working for Yahoo... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I work for Yahoo! (note the "!" :) ).

    Judging the appeal of a company based on the CEO (or even the top management) is like judging the ride of a car by looking at the hood ornament.

    Yahoo! is a great place to work. We may not have officially sanctioned "20% time off" policies, but there's a lot of freedom to find your own calling.

    Tomorrow (Thursday) is an internal "Hack Day", and Yahoo!s all over the world will be churning out interesting/cool projects in an informal competition. It's loads of fun.

    The biggest advantage of Yahoo! as an employer is that there is such a wide variety of projects to work on. You want to work on a project doing, say, TV on a mobile device? I'm sure there's a group working on that.