Yahoo Co-Founder Yang Now In Charge

Raver32 writes "Yahoo Inc. Chairman Terry Semel ended his six-year tenure as chief executive officer today and will hand over the reins to co-founder Jerry Yang in the Internet icon's latest attempt to regain investor confidence. Semel, 64, will remain chairman in a non-executive role. Besides naming Yang as its new CEO, Yahoo appointed Susan Decker as its president. Decker, who had been recently promoted to oversee Yahoo's advertising operations, had widely been seen as Semel's heir apparent."

Comments

Lets hope they change

[WindBourne]

Yahoo has been run into the ground because it was treated like a telcom. The employees have minimal incentive to really innovate. If they return to treating employees like part owners (the way they use and the way that Google currently does), then they stand a chance to compete. Until then, they will remain a second rate search engine.

Re:Lets hope they change

[EveryNickIsTaken]

Until then, they will remain a second rate search engine. Giving John Doe in software development a raise and stock options will not make Yahoo! the number one search engine. Changing their business plan (if they have one) and offering something that every other search engine doesn't will.

Re:Lets hope they change

[jb.cancer]

Giving John Doe in software development a raise and stock options will not make Yahoo! the number one search engine. Changing their business plan (if they have one) and offering something that every other search engine doesn't will. and how do you think they'll come up with that 'something innovative'. No matter what kind of process/model you follow it's the *people* who work there that will make the difference. Remember, not everyone is a John Doe, and those special people need to feel like the place where they work is part of them in order to motivate them and get the best. otherwise it's just a matter of time. so i go with GP.

Re:Lets hope they change

[sconeu]

Why even "my.yahoo.com"? Why not just "mail.yahoo.com", if you just want the email?

Always quit while you're #1

[niceone]

Always quit while you're #1 - from TFA: "Semel ranked No. 1 on The Associated Press' survey of 2006 executive compensation with $71.7 million (U.S.)"

I'm guessing Yahoo's performance was not quite #1 though.

pattern?

[dotpavan]

notice a pattern? Founder returning to take charge when things are bad, like in the case of Dell, Apple

I hope that I can become second rate

[anomaly]

$6.5B in gross income, $3.7B in gross profit, $37B in market cap?

Oh, that I could be so second rate!

Yahoo needs a lot more than head changes

[erroneus]

They need to give back to the community in ways that corporate mentality does not permit.

They also need to make some serious technical advancements to work against their currently spammy environment. Once they get the spammy nature of their internet operations back under control, they can focus on community projects to build a fan-base which they sorely need and then start to work on professional services.

It's not just "too easy" to be an advertiser, it marks against them. They need to at least APPEAR to be a community force on the internet that happens to do a little advertising on the side to pay the bills.

Study how people use the net

[athloi]

While Semel may be a business expert, what made Yahoo! was its understanding of how to use the net. If you think business-model-first, then you make what exists more profitable. But for profit to exist, it must first be useful.

I am hoping Jerry Yang will return Yahoo's focus to the useful. Many great and creative products have come out of Yahoo, albeit in a disunified, confused, under-promoted way. If he can tie them together into a strategy of how people use the net, like the original Yahoo directory did, he may be on to something.

I also hope they rebuild and continue the Yahoo directory project. As someone who routinely encounters too many junk hits in Google to make searches efficient, I'd like to see a dual-pane search that gives (a) raw results from the search engine and (b) search results from an updated, RDF-tagged, classified and vetted Yahoo directory.

A legend continues... this news makes me smile (despite a lack of corporate loyalty of fanboism, of course).

Mediocre is good enough

[anomaly]

Many many many times, mediocre is good enough to allow companies to remain significantly profitable, even with poor leadership.

If you consider $3B in profits to be "continuing to fail" then I'd love to see your definition of success!

Perhaps Yahoo is focusing on a market who simply doesn't understand that it *could* be better than Yahoo currently is. No one goes out of business underestimating the lack of intelligence in the population. Lowest common denominator can make lots of money. Perhaps it's their strategy.

Re:Mediocre is good enough

[Bluesman]

Yahoo is a public company.

If I'm going to invest in a company, I'd like to see a return on that investment that is at least as good as the market average. Otherwise, I'm better off with an index fund or some other type of investment.

It's not good enough for a public company to simply make a profit, since it's competing for investment dollars with all other public companies. The company has to be seen as an investment that will generate greater returns than the various other investment options out there.

While it may seem silly that a profitable company is still "in trouble," this is the risk that is taken when a company goes public. A private company could make $1 net profit, and that's $1 more than it needs to survive.